抄録
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of bitterness of commercial dry syrups preparations of three kinds of macrolide antibiotic (erythromycin dry syrup (EMD), clarithromycin dry syrup (CAMD) and azithromycin dry syrup (AZMD) when suspended in various beverages (water, tea and acidic sports drinks) by human gustatory sensation testing and taste sensor measurements.
In the human gustatory sensation test, we evaluated the bitterness at three time points. First, we evaluated the bitterness immediately after the dry syrup suspension had been kept in the mouth for 5 seconds, which we termed “immediate bitterness”. The second and third time points were directly after and 5 minutes after the suspension had been ejected from the mouth and the mouth rinsed with water, which we referred to as “residual bitterness” and “residual bitterness after 5 minutes”, respectively.
By this test, the ranking of the immediate bitterness of the suspensions of the dry syrups in water was AZMD >EMD= CAMD. As compared with water and tea, the bitterness of the dry syrups was greater when suspended in sports drinks when the ranking by immediate bitterness and residual bitterness was CAMD >AZMD=EMD. The bitterness enhancement was probably due to the increased dissolution of the dry syrups under acidic conditions.
In the taste sensor study, the predicted degrees of bitterness correlated well with the bitterness findings from the gustatory sensation test for both direct bitterness and residual-bitterness (r2 = 0.921, 0.794, respectively).
