The Bitterness Intensity of Pharmaceutical Ingredients Determined by Taste Sensor

Abstract

Many drugs elicit a bitter taste, so development of a method to mask bitterness is widely required in pharmaceutical sciences. The human sense of taste is subject to both physiological properties and individual preferences, and a general approach, which is also applicable to the paediatric population, is not yet available. The toxicity of new chemical entities plays a major role in early preclinical development and may lead to limitations with respect to taste assessment. Therefore, taste sensor may offer an objective and safe method for comparing different formulations with respect to taste masking. The bitterness intensities of pharmaceutical ingredients were evaluated using taste sensor. We introduce two studies, evaluation of bitterness intensity of active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical preparation including bitter-taste active pharmaceutical ingredient.