title: Sensory evaluation of the taste of berberine hydrochloride using an Electronic Tongue.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The "Electronic Tongue" is an instrument that can be trained to screen the taste attributes of formulations within a rapid timeframe when used in conjunction with sensory panel taste assessment data.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this research was to demonstrate that a sensory instrument for taste (e-Tongue) could be used to evaluate the bitterness of berberine hydrochloride from Chinese medicinal herbs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Several flavorful native compounds were tested by the e-Tongue. Data from a human sensory panel was collected to train the e-Tongue. The e-Tongue was then used to establish the correlation between data from the sensory panel, and to predict the bitterness scores of berberine hydrochloride.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The e-Tongue showed different response patterns for different tastes or strengths of flavor compounds. No significant differences were found between the results of the e-Tongue and the sensory taste panel.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The e-Tongue could be used to evaluate the effect of bitterness of berberine hydrochloride. Therefore, e-Tongues showed potential to replace sensory panel evaluations in future experiments regarding Chinese traditional medicine.
authors.affiliation: Engineering Research Center of Modern Preparation Technology of TCM, Ministry of Education, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China. shutcmyo@163.com
authors.forename: Youjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Desheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D001599:Berberine / Q000032:analysis*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; D003205:Computing Methodologies; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry*; D004581:Electronics; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013649:Taste; D055697:Taste Perception; D013678:Technology, Pharmaceutical / Q000379:methods*; D014059:Tongue
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D001599:Berberine