Trials of Improvements on the Taste of an Oral Amino Acid Preparation for Hepatic Failure

Abstract

Oral amino acid preparations, enriched branched chain amino acids (BCAA) based on Fischer's theory have been used parenterally in hepatic failure with hepatic coma so far. Recently theoral powder form which was administered by dissolving in warm water was commercially developedand now widely used. But this preparation contains so much of bitter BCAA and haveto take it continuously over a long period that patients are suffering from the taste and largevolume of the solution prepared.
We tried to test here to improve the taste of the preparation by mixing many soft drinks commercially available as the flavoring agents. As the results, bitterness of the preparation was effectively suppressed by especially tasting sour and sweet with soft drinks. Also use of tubes similar to straws for soft drinks was useful to take much volume of the solution without tasting bitter.