Taste-active compounds in a traditional Italian food: 'lampascioni'.
Nature is a rich source of taste-active compounds, in particular of plant origin, many of which have unusual tastes. Many of these are found in traditional food, where spontaneous plants are used as ingredients. Some taste-active compounds were identified in the bulbs of Muscari comosum, a spontaneous plant belonging to the family of the Liliaceae, very common in the Mediterranean area, and used in traditional gastronomy (called 'lampascioni' in South Italy). The bulbs were extracted with a series of solvents of different polarity. The different fractions were submitted to a preliminary sensory evaluation, and the most interesting ones, characterized by a strong bitter taste and some chemestetic properties, were submitted to further purification and structural analysis. From the ethereal extract, several 3-benzyl-4-chromanones and one stilbene derivative were isolated. Pure compounds were examined for their taste activity by means of sensory evaluation, and proved to be responsible for the characteristic taste of this food. Some of these compounds have been synthesized de novo to confirm their structure.
Borgonovo
Gigliola
G
Dipartimento di Scienze Molecolari Agroalimentari, Università di Milano, Via Celoria 2, I-20133 Milano.
Caimi
Sara
S
Morini
Gabriella
G
Scaglioni
Leonardo
L
Bassoli
Angela
A
D002839:Chromans / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D019668:Liliaceae / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000032:analysis; D013267:Stilbenes / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013649:Taste; D014675:Vegetables / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development
D002839:Chromans; D010936:Plant Extracts; D013267:Stilbenes