辣椒素类物质辣味的研究进展

辣椒素类物质是一类带有香草基团和中长链脂肪酰胺结构的生物碱，其中辣椒素和二氢辣椒素辣度最高。部分辣椒素类物质可激活相关受体，引起痛觉与热觉神经信号的传导，使人感到辣味。斯科维尔指数法是评价辣度最常见的方法，但评价结果仅与辣味物质的含量有关，无法真正反映样品的辣度，而时间-强度法可获得多个与辣度相关的定量指标，具有更高的参考价值。除增加辣椒素类物质的含量外，使用水基分散系、提高体系温度、增感作用的产生甚至其他感觉刺激均可显著提升辣椒素类物质辣味感知强度，在感官评价中应当特别注意。综上，本文总结辣椒素类物质的结构、分布，辣味呈现机制、评价方法以及影响辣味感知的因素等方面，以期为食品辣味强度预测和辣味食品的开发提供参考。

Research Progress on the Pungency of Capsaicinoids

Capsaicinoids are a class of alkaloids with vanillyl and medium/long-chain fatty acid amide structures, and capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin are the most pungent capsaicinoids. Some capsaicinoids activate related receptors and induce the transmission of nociceptive and thermic neural signals, leading to pungency perception. The Scoville scale is the most common method for pungency evaluation. However, it cannot reflect the actual pungency of samples because the result is only correlated with the contents of pungent substances. Time-intensity approach provides several quantitative indexes to measure pungency and is more useful. In addition to increasing the content of capsaicinoids, using aqueous-based carrier, increasing the temperature, sensitization, and some sensory stimuli can enhance the pungency perception of capsaicinoids, which deserves special attention in sensory evaluation. In summary, this paper reviewed the structure and distribution of capsaicinoids, mechanism and evaluation methods for pungency perception, as well as factors that may influence the perception of spiciness. This article provides some reference for the pungency prediction and development of spicy foods.