ArticleChemical senses2015
"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down": bitter masking by sucrose among children and adults.
Article in Chemical senses, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic Variation and Sensory Perception of a Pediatric Formulation of Ibuprofen: Can a Medicine Taste Too Good for Some?International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Trial
- Repeated Exposure to Low-Sodium Cereal Affects Acceptance but Does not Shift Taste Preferences or Detection Thresholds of Children in a Randomized Clinical Trial.The Journal of nutrition · 2019Trial
- Children's perceptions about medicines: individual differences and taste.BMC pediatrics · 2015Trial
- Personal variation in the palatability and side effects of liquid clindamycin among children.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Ingredients to Mask the Aversive Taste of Medicines: Lessons from the Pharmaceutical and Food Industries and Home Remedies Adopted by Caregivers.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Sweet Taste Receptor Genetic VariationNutrients · 2026Article
- Matrix-Dependent Sweet-Sour Psychophysics: gLMS and Time-Intensity of Sugar Alcohol-Acid Mixture in Liquids and Tablets.Food science & nutrition · 2026Article
- Metronidazole Suspension for Paediatric Use in Developing Countries: Formulation, Quality, and Stability.Pharmaceutics · 2025Article
- Worldwide study of the taste of bitter medicines and their modifiers.Chemical senses · 2025Article
- Differences in hedonic perception of retronasal odors between young children and adults.Chemical senses · 2025Article
- Sugar cane extracts as natural taste modulators: potential for sugar reduction in beverages and beyond.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Discovery of bitter masking compounds from Allspice (Food chemistry: X · 2024Article
- Sodium Bicarbonate Decreases Alcohol Consumption in Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Worldwide study of the taste of bitter medicines and their modifiers.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Thiazolidinediones are Partially Effective Bitter Blockers.Clinical therapeutics · 2024Article
- Predicting and improving complex beer flavor through machine learning.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Sucrose, NaCl, and citric acid suppress the metallic sensation of FeSO4.Chemical senses · 2024Article
- A novel oral medicated jelly for enhancement of etilefrine hydrochloride bioavailability:Saudi pharmaceutical journal : SPJ : the official publication of the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society · 2022Article
- Review
- Reducing the Bitter Taste of Pharmaceuticals Using Cell-Based Identification of Bitter-Masking Compounds.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Sweeteners are often added to liquid formulations of drugs but whether they merely make them better tasting or actually reduce the perception of bitterness remains unknown. In a group of children and adults, we determined whether adding sucrose to urea, caffeine, denatonium benzoate, propylthiouracil (PROP), and quinine would reduce their bitterness using a forced-choice method of paired comparisons. To better understand individual differences, adults also rated each solution using a more complex test (general Labeled Magnitude Scale [gLMS]) and were genotyped for the sweet taste receptor gene TAS1R3 and the bitter receptor TAS2R38. Sucrose suppressed the bitterness of each agent in children and adults. In adults, sucrose was effective in reducing the bitterness ratings from moderate to weak for all compounds tested, but those with the sensitive form of the sweet receptor reported greater reduction for caffeine and quinine. For PROP, sucrose was most effective for those who were genetically the most sensitive, although this did not attain statistical significance. Not only is the paired comparison method a valid tool to study how sucrose improves the taste of pediatric medicines among children but knowledge gleaned from basic research in bitter taste and how to alleviate it remains an important public health priority.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.