Sweetness and salivary characteristics

In the present study, we investigated whether the structurally and sensorially diverse sweet taste affecting compounds sucrose and the non-caloric rebaudioside M (RebM), sucralose, and NHDC differently influence the salivary flow and the viscoelasticity of saliva, which contributes to an overall mouthfeel, in 21 healthy human subjects. Several factors that may influence salivary characteristics were included in the study as well, namely the BMI, age and sweet threshold of test subjects, individual sweet perception of test compounds, pH of saliva, a amylase activity, cystatin S, Muc5B, elasticity (G') and phase angle of saliva. Moreover, we investigated whether there was an association between the composition of the oral microbiota and mouthfeel properties. Sequencing was performed at the Joint Microbiome Facility of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna under the project ID JMF-1908-4.