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Umami (Japanese: 旨み、旨味、うまみ) is one of the five basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue.[1] The same taste is also known as xiānwèi (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ) in Chinese cooking. Umami is a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "meaty" and thus applies to the sensation of savoriness—specifically, to the detection of glutamates, which are especially common in meats, cheese and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste fuller.

Inasmuch as it describes the flavor common to savory products such as meat, cheese, and mushrooms, umami is similar to Brillat-Savarin's concept of , an early attempt to describe the main flavoring component of meat as extracted in the process of making stock.

Isolation of the taste

Main article: Monosodium glutamate
Umami was first identified as a taste in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavor in seaweed broth.[2] Ikeda isolated monosodium glutamate as the chemical responsible and, with the help of the Ajinomoto company, began commercial distribution of MSG products.

Discovery of taste receptors

Umami, which has been known by Eastern civilizations for years, was recently brought to the forefront of Western awareness by Drs. Stephen Roper and Nirupa Chaudhari, researchers at the University of Miami, when they identified the actual taste receptor responsible for the sense of umami, a modified form of mGluR4, in which the end of the molecule is missing.[3] Roper and Chaudhari named it "taste-mGluR4".

See also

References

1. ^ Sherry Seethaler, "UCSD-led Team Discovers How We Detect Sour Taste", University of California, San Diego, August 23, 2006.
2. ^ Journal of the Chemical Society of Tokyo, 30, 820–836, (1909).
3. ^ Nelson G, Chandrashekar J, Hoon MA, et al (2002). "An amino-acid taste receptor". Nature 416 (6877): 199–202. DOI:10.1038/nature726. PMID 11894099. 

External links

This article contains Japanese text.
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Japanese
日本語
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basic tastes are those commonly recognized types of taste sensed by humans. Humans receive tastes through sensory organs called taste buds or gustatory calyculi, concentrated on the upper surface of the tongue.
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The tongue is the large bundle of skeletal muscles on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing (deglutition). It is the primary organ of taste. Much of the surface of the tongue is covered in taste buds.
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Traditional Chinese
Child systems Simplified Chinese
Chữ Nôm
Sister systems Hanja, Kanji

ISO 15924 Hant

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Simplified Chinese

Sister systems Kanji, Chữ Nôm

ISO 15924 Hans

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Glutamic acid or glutamate (abbreviated as Glu or E; Glx or Z represents either glutamic acid or glutamine), is the protonated form of glutamate (the anion). Glutamate is one of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids.
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Proteins are large organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues.
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Monosodium glutamate, sodium glutamate, flavour enhancer 621, EU food additive code: E621, HS code: 29224220 (IUPAC name 2-aminopentanedioic acid. Also known as 2-aminoglutaric acid), commonly known as MSG, Ajinomoto, Vetsin, or Accent
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Stock is a flavoured liquid. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces. Stock is prepared by simmering various ingredients in water, including some or all of the following:
  • Bones.

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Monosodium glutamate, sodium glutamate, flavour enhancer 621, EU food additive code: E621, HS code: 29224220 (IUPAC name 2-aminopentanedioic acid. Also known as 2-aminoglutaric acid), commonly known as MSG, Ajinomoto, Vetsin, or Accent
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Kikunae Ikeda (池田 菊苗 Ikeda Kikunae, October 8,1864 – May 3,1936) was a Japanese chemist, Tokyo Imperial University professor in Chemistry who, in 1908, uncovered the chemical root behind a taste he named umami.
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University of Tokyo (東京大学 Tōkyō daigaku
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Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (味の素株式会社
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University of Miami (also known as Miami of Florida,[2] UM,[3] or just The U[4][5][6][7]
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A Taste receptor is a type of receptor which facilitates the sensation of taste.

Examples include TAS2R16 and TAS2R38.

They are divided into two families:
  • Type 1, sweet, first characterized in 2001:[1] TAS1R1 - TAS1R3

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Metabotropic glutamate receptors, or mGluRs, are a type of glutamate receptor which are active through an indirect metabotropic process. They are members of the group C family of G-protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs.
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Inosine monophosphate (IMP) is an inosine nucleotide.

The enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase converts hypoxanthine to IMP.

AMP can be converted into IMP by the enzyme myoadenylate deaminase, freeing an ammonia group.
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