We found that monosaccharides are sweeter than the disaccharides and polysaccharides and that monosaccharides have a higher degree of sweetness than both disaccharides and polysaccharides. In this lab we asked the question, "How does the structure of a carbohydrate affect its sweetness?". We made the hypothesis, "If monosaccharides and disaccharides taste sweet, then fructose should be sweet because it is a monosaccharide." We found that fructose and glucose were the monosaccharides that we tasted and they both had a very high degree of sweetness. Most of the carbohydrates that we tasted were white, other than the maltose. Also, most of the carbohydrates that weren't as sweet had a powdery texture. Since monosaccharides taste sweet, fructose, which is a monosaccharide, was very sweet. The carbohydrate structure could affect how they are used by cells and organisms because the polysaccharides are found in plants, and the monosaccharides and disaccharides are found in foods.
While our hypothesis was supported our data that monosaccharides and disaccharides taste sweet, there could have been errors due to personal opinion on the degrees of sweetness and not tasting it with a "clean palate". Everybody's opinion differs because not everything tastes the same to the person next to you. Everyone probably had different opinions on how sweet all the carbohydrates were. Another error could have been from people not tasting them with a "clean palate". In order to truly taste something, one must have no other taste in their mouth before tasting something. Most people could not drink water to rinse out the taste of the carbohydrate before it when tasting all the carbohydrates. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend for everyone to rinse out their mouths between tastes with water and for everyone to get an average sweetness degree with everyone' results. Not all students gave each sample the same rating because everyone has different tastes. Everyone eats differently so that could affect their own personal taste. Another reason for why everyone's ratings were probably different is because some people may have tasted more than others. Some people could've only tasted a small amount of the carbohydrates and didn't really taste it. The last reason for why people gave different sweetness degree ratings is because some people rinsed out their mouths between tastes and others didn't. The taste of other carbohydrates could've still been in one's mouth when they tasted another sugar.
The human tongue tastes sweetness because it is rich in nutrients. Smell is also a factor that can affect taste and how sweet something can taste to people. Tasters could rank the sweetness of the same samples differently because everyone smells things differently than the person next to them. "Sweetness" is also described by the activation of sensory cells. Different people could have different activation energies that are needed. Since foods are "sweet" because they are rich in nutrients, tasters could have many different opinions on the amount of nutrients in the same substances.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072592/
Comments
Post a Comment