The potential use of insects as a novel food resource has recently attracted a great deal of attention because of their environmental and nutritional benefits. Nevertheless, despite growing interest in the use of insects as food, residents of economically developed countries tend not to accept insect-based foods. This study reviewed earlier reports of the literature of consumer acceptance of insect-based foods. Based on the literatures, this review established a theoretical model of acceptance of insect-based foods. Sensory attributes (e.

., , smell, appearance) and cognitive attributes (e.g., nutritional value, environmental benefits), and individual traits (e.g., gender, food neophobia, sensation seeking) might influence the acceptance of insect-based foods via emotional processing (e.g., disgust, anxiety, excitement, curiosity). The practical implications for industries and future prospects are discussed.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in taste sensitivity during aging using four standard taste solutions. The subjects consisted of 50 normal volunteers who were divided into two groups. The younger age group was composed of 27 individuals between the ages of 20 and 30 years. The older group consisted of 23 individuals between the ages of 50 and 77 years. In order to evaluate the anatomic form of the fungiform papillae, close-up photographs (×3) were taken on the right side of the tongue in all subjects. Then, each subject's taste threshold was measured by placing the four taste solutions on the following structures : fungiform papillae, circumvallate papillae and soft palate.
The anatomical forms of the fungiform papillae were significantly different upon comparison of the two groups (p <0.05), and the taste sensitivity of fungiform and circumvallate papillae also showed significant differences (p <0.05).

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Detection threshold for salt (NaCI) and discrimination between two levels of NaCI concentration (0.6 and 0.7%) in foods, and their relation to some selected biochemical parameters in plasma and urine (Zn, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Se for plasma and urine, Cu and retinol binding protein for plasma) were investigated in 15 healthy male college students. No subject failed to discriminate the NaCI concentrations in more than 50% of the tests. The rate of correct discrimination (RCD) was not associated with plasma Zn (P-Zn), plasma retinol binding protein (PRBP), urinary potassium (U-K) or urinary sodium (U-Na), which significantly correlated with RCD in our previous study, while the detection threshold was significantly correlated with urinary Ca-Mg ratio (UCa/Mg), urinary Ca (U-Ca), U-Na, and urinary Mg. In the stepwise multiple regression analysis, U-Ca/Mg, plasma Ca, plasma Na, and RCD were selected as significant independent variables. These indicate that the status of minerals such as Na, Ca, and Mg is related to the gustatory function. One possible explanation for the discrepancy between the present and previous results is the elevated P-Zn and P-RBP levels in the present subjects.

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Few sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) cultivars with erect plant type are available despite their advantages over spreading type, such as simplicity of cultivation and ability to adapt to limited space. One of the reasons is insufficiency of their agronomic characteristics for table use. So, it is important to overcome these drawbacks of ER-type lines. We attempted to breed new erect plant type sweetpotato lines having good agronomic traits using cross breeding and mutation breeding with gamma-ray irradiation. With cross breeding we successfully developed new erect plant type lines with almost equal levels of yield as compared to ‘Beniazuma’, one of the leading cultivars in Japan. However, mutation breeding failed to develop any promising lines because we could not obtain distinct erect plant type lines. In the future larger numbers of plants should be used for mutation breeding, and irradiation methods should be improved.

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糖尿病と強い関連を有する形質との間の遺伝的関係を分析することは, 糖尿病発症の遺伝機構の解明のみならず, 糖尿病病態あるいは合併症の出現などの予後の予測にも極めて重要な知見を与えてくれる.
著者らは, 上記の点を解明するため, まず, 予備的研究として, IDDM81人, NIDDM28人についてPnlcnyl-thio-carbanlidc (PTC) の味覚反応について調査を行った.
その結果は,(1) IDDMおよびNIDDMいずれの群でも男女間のPTC味盲頻度の差はみられなかった. (2) 調査1時年齢および発症年齢をそれぞれ16歳までの群と16歳以上の群に分け, PTC味盲頻度を比較したところ, IDDM群ではいずれも16歳以上の群の方が16歳までの群に比べ高く, 男ではP<0.001, 女では0.05<p<0.10水準で統計的に有意である. (3) PTC味盲頻度について一般集団 (P_G=0.1276±0.0082) とIDDM群 (P_I=0.1235±0.0366) とNIDDM群 (P_N=0.5000±0.0945) との間で比較したところ, P_GとP_Iとの問では差がみられないが, P_GとPNおよびP_IとP_Nとの間ではそれぞれ統計的有意差がみられた.
以上の結果は, NIDDMとPTC味盲との問に強い関連を示したが, 病因との関係は, 多面発現, 連鎖不平衡およびepistasisの解析や, 臨床遺伝小上化学的解明が必要であり, 今後さらに調査例数を増して詳細に検討したい.

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The current study aimed to explore the impact of buffer species on the dissolution behavior of orally disintegrating tablets (ODT) containing a basic polymer and its influence on bioequivalence (BE) prediction. Fexofenadine hydrochloride ODT formulations were used as the model formulations, Allegra^® as the reference formulation, and generic formulations A and B as the test formulations. Allegra^®, generic A, and generic B are ODT formulations that contain aminoalkyl methacrylate copolymers E (Eudragit^® E, EUD-E), a basic polymer commonly used to mask the bitter taste of drugs. Both generic A and generic B have been known to be bioequivalent to Allegra^®. The dissolution tests were conducted using a compendial paddle, with either bicarbonate (10 mM, pH 6.8) or phosphate buffer (25 mM, pH 6.8) as the dissolution media. A floating lid was employed to cover the surface of the bicarbonate buffer to prevent volatilization. Results indicated that in phosphate buffer, the dissolution profiles of Allegra and generic B significantly varied from that of generic A, whereas in the bicarbonate buffer, the dissolution profiles of Allegra, generic A, and generic B were comparable. These findings suggest that the use of bicarbonate buffer may offer a more precise prediction of human bioequivalence compared to phosphate buffer.

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一般に霊長類は、栄養成分である蛋白質や糖質含有量が高く、消化阻害物質である粗繊維や縮合性タンニン含有量の低い食物を選択的に採食している。こうした食物選択は、個体の栄養状態を良好に保ち、多くの子供を残す結果に繋がると考えられることから、生存・繁殖上の機能的な、言い換えれば究極的な意味があると言える。他方、彼らがこうした選択をする直接の手がかり(至近要因)は味である。最近、盛んに行われている各呈味物質に対する閾値や嗜好性の種差を食性の違いから論じる研究は、その手がかりを明らかにするだけでなく、それらの違いに機能的な意味があることを示唆してくれる。

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味細胞からの情報を脳に伝える最初の神経である一次味覚神経の活動電位について1930年代から今日までラベルドライン説とアクロスファイバーパターン説の議論の中で知見が蓄えられているが、実験動物によって味覚感受性が異なることから、研究に用いる動物の選択は重要である。C57BLマウスでは1本の神経が応答する味質が少なく、味細胞のターンオーバーや神経再生の際も味細胞-味神経の選択的な結合が神経に決定権がある形でおこなわれ、その関係は厳密に保たれている。味細胞の受容伝達機構、神経結合は徐々に明らかになっている。

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マウス有郭乳頭味蕾の神経支配について, アドレナリン作働性神経支配をも含めて 電子顕微鏡により検索した.
高電子密度のシナプス膜と シナプス小胞の集積とを伴う 典型的な求心性シナプス接合が, 第3型細胞と神経終末との間に認められる. 第2型細胞と神経終末の接合部位に沿う細胞膜下には, しばしば小胞体嚢が見られ, 神経終末は, シナプス小胞と同じ大きさの小胞をかなり多数含有する. この神経終末の性質は 遠心性ではないかと推測される.
アドレナリン作働性神経の検出のために, マウスにL-DOPA と nialamide を前投与した後, 5-hydroxydopamine を投与した. 味蕾下の結合組織には 多数のアドレナリン作働性神経線維が認められ, さらに その中の少数の神経線維は味蕾の基底膜を貫き, 味蕾細胞に接触する. 一部のアドレナリン作働性神経は, 味蕾周辺の上皮細胞間にも分布する. アセチルコリン-エステラーゼ反応を行なったところ, コリン作働性神経線維のほかに, アドレナリン作働性神経線維も陽性を示した.

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蒟蒻粉の精製法の簡易化・迅速化・精粉の脱臭を目的にアルコール沈殿精製法を一部改良し,精製過程に超音波照射を導入したモデル実験を試み,その精粉の理化学的性状と嗜好に与える影響を検討し,次の結果を得た.
(1) 超音波照射を導入した本精製法は対照のアルコール沈殿法より蘭弱粉の品質改良に優れていた.
(2) 好適な精製条件は抽出水温40℃設定,照射時間は15分間が良好で,蒟蒻粉の歩留りは90%程度であった.この精粉は対照の無照射のものに比し白色度が高く,ゲルはアミン類と思われる区分の臭気物質が著しく緩和され,品質改良が認められた.
(3) 蒟蒻ゾルの流動特性はレオペクシーの挙動を示し,15分間照射した精粉ゾルではみかけの粘度は処理前ゾルより高いが,キャソン降伏値は若干小さく変形しやすいソフトなゾルとなった.このゾルを35℃で6時間保存した場合でも粘度を維持し安定であった.
(4) 官能検査では照射15分間の精粉ゲルは蒟蒻臭やえぐ味が少なく,経口時に口溶けが良く,おいしく感じ高い評価を得た.

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19世紀からポスターの芸術的要素は大衆の趣味向上に役立つことが指摘されてきたが, 両大戦間期イギリスの特徴はこれが実際に教育計画の一端を担ったことである。背景には, モダニズムこそが「良い趣味」, 「良いデサイン」であり, これを解する人が一般大衆の趣味を改善するよう働きかけなければならないとする, 芸術家やエリート層の理想主義的な文化二元論が存在した。当時のポスター芸術のパトロン達も, これと無関係ではなかった。本稿ではまずポスター芸術と趣味論, モダニズム論が当時どのように関連づけられていたかを明らかにし, 次にポスター芸術が児童, 社会を対象に趣味教育の道具として機能した例を具体的に検証する。これを通して, モダンからポストモダンへの過渡期を特徴づけるポスター芸術の存在意義を考察する。

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Neurological studies in patients with stroke or epilepsy have suggested that the human primary gustatory cortex is located in the insula and frontal operculum. Although electrophysiological studies in non-human primates have supported the above idea, these conventional approaches were inapplicable to systematically examine the human gustatory cortex. Recent non-invasive brain imaging techniques including positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have enabled us to explore the precise locations of gustation-related regions in the human brain. These non-invasive imaging studies have revealed the mechanism of not only “bottom-up” information processing, from the peripheral gustatory organs, taste buds, to the gustatory cortices, but also “top-down” processing in the gustatory system. Our group investigated the organization of neural systems for gustatory perception and gustatory imagery using fMRI. We found that gustatory imagery tasks activate the insula, showing predominant activation in the left hemisphere. Furthermore, gustatory imagery tasks activated the orbitofrontal, precentral, and middle/superior frontal gyri. On the other hand, gustatory imagery contrasted with visual imagery activated only the insula, orbitofrontal and precentral gyri. These results suggest the possibility that the source of “top-down” signals may be in the middle and superior frontal gyri, and that these signals may affect on neural activities in the insula, orbitofrontal, and precentral gyri.

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Taste buds, the sensory end organs for the sense of taste, consist of taste sensing cells, supportive cells and basel cells. Taste bud cells are heterogeneous in terms of morphology as well as functional profiles. Although the lineage of mammalian taste bud cells is largely unknown, it is generally accepted that undifferentiated epithelial basal cells surrounding taste buds enter the taste buds to form and maintain this specialized corpuscle. To analyze taste bud formation during development, we conducted morphological observations and examined differentiation marker expression. Thickening of epithelia starts at 13 dpc foetus and immunohistochemistry against a neural marker, PGP 9.5, revealed that the change of epithelial morphology precedes neural projection observed at 14 dpc foetus. Taste sensing cells appear 6 days after birth indicated by expression of the single transduction component phospholipase Cβ2 (PLCβ2) as differentiation marker. To further investigate the maintenance and cell lineage in the taste buds in adults, we injected 5'bromo-2'deoxyuridine (BrdU) solution to young growing mice for a week. BrdU label retaining cells (LRCs) could be observed even 8 weeks after injection. LRCs were examined the differentiation by PLCβ2 and proliferative activity by Ki-67. The results suggested two possibilities. 1) Part of PLCβ2 positive cells retain proliferative activity and multipotentiality, or 2) precursor cells (stem cells) stay in the taste buds and produce at least part of the taste sensing cells through proliferation and differentiation processes.

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Olive leaf cold-water extract (OEx), which has cross-linking activity of protein molecules, modifies the physical properties of heat-induced chicken egg white gel. In this study, we investigated the effect of OEx in the range of 0.1 to 1.0% (w/w egg white) on the physical properties of egg white meringue. The overrun of meringue prepared from egg white decreased with increasing amount of OEx. For meringue baked at 121ºC, the specific volume of baked meringues with 0.1 and 0.5% OEx tended higher than that of OEx-free counterpart. Baked meringue with 0.5% OEx had 1.3 times higher breaking stress than that without OEx. On the other hand, for meringue baked at 93ºC, baked meringue with 0.5% OEx had 1.6 and 1.9 times higher breaking stress and breaking strain than OEx-free meringue, respectively. Scanning electron observation showed that the addition of 0.5% OEx to egg white induced denser microstructure of baked meringue. The contents of primary amino group and SH group in egg white protein decreased with increasing addition of OEx, contrarily the cross-linkage formation between protein molecules enhanced. It is presumed that the chemical changes, that is protein cross-linkage etc, link to the denser microstructure in baked meringue; resulting in the modification of the physical properties. The present study suggests that OEx is feasible to improve the texture of meringue-based confectioneries.

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