| Abstract: | The sweetness of sugar, glucose, xylose, saccharin, aspartame,etc. was assessed by magnitude estimation, with sensory intensitiesof 5, 10 and 20 defined as being equivalent to 2.5, 5.0 and10.0% concentrations of sugar in tap water. Sensory magnitudewas determined as being the input through a ‘mouse’to a microcomputer, PC 9801F2, which digitized the time intoseconds, while intensity was expressed in terms of tenths ofthe sensory magnitude 1.0. The two-dimensional information wasregistered on floppy disc memory and retrieved to calculatethe average time-intensity curves for each subject, or the averagefor several subjects. With this technique, it is easy to measure:(i) time of maximum intensity; (ii) height of maximum intensity;(iii) amount of adaptation; (iv) amount of after-taste; or (v)total amplitude (the sum of areas under the curve during andafter stimulation). The subjects were seven male students. Witha little training, they produced highly reliable curves forthe replicates of a sweetener at one concentration. Multidimensionalscaling of these curves did not disclose any clusterings ofnatural versus synthetic sweeteners. |
