Tea compound-saliva interactions and their correlations with sweet aftertaste.

Huigan is an important sensory attribute which is commonly used as a quality indicator evaluation of tea products. Previous studies showed a strong correlation between the lubrication behavior of saliva-tea compound mixture and the sensory perception of Huigan from trained panelists. This work was further designed to investigate how the effect of tea consumption on the rate of saliva secretion and its functional properties including total protein content of saliva (TPC), salivary α-amylase (AMY) and lipase activity (LP).

Oral physiological characteristics among Chinese subjects in the eastern region of China.

Objectives: With an increasing number of elderly in China, it becomes imperative to establish a comprehensive understanding of their physiological capabilities and investigate fundamental mechanisms underpinning the discrepancies between Chinese individuals and other ethnical groups, which will facilitate government policymaking, design and development of special food products.

Design: In this study, 100 healthy Chinese subjects in the eastern region of China (22-89 years old) were recruited with full consent, then divided into young adult, middle-aged and elderly groups. Subjects' maximum biting force (MBF), maximum tongue pressure (MTP), maximum oral volume (MOV), and saliva flow rate were recorded.

Saliva could act as an emulsifier during oral processing of oil/fat.

Human saliva is a fluid naturally secreted in the oral cavity that interacts with food and food components for bolus formation, structure degradation, as well as lubrication. Because of the presence of salivary proteins, we speculate that saliva could also function as an effective emulsifier during oral processing of oil/fat. In this preliminary work, experiments were then designed to test this hypothesis.