Identification of Somatosensory Compounds Contributing to Slipperiness and Thickness Perceptions in Canned Prunes (Prunus domestica).

The role of small molecules on the somatosensory properties of prunes (Prunus domestica) was investigated. Sensory descriptive analysis defined two main somatosensations, "thickness" and "slippery". Based on these two attributes, sensory guided multi-dimensional fractionation techniques allowed the isolation of four main compounds, which were identified by MS and comparison to authentic standards. Three compounds were identified as mono-substituted isomers of chlorogenic acid namely, 1-O-caffeoylquinic acid (1-CQA), 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3-CQA) and 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid (4-CQA) in addition to a fourth, vanillic acid glucoside (VG). Sensory recombination model analysis of each compound at endogenous concentrations of the prunes indicated all compounds significantly contributed to slippery sensations whereas 3-CQA, 4-CQA and VG contributed to thickness sensations (alpha = 0.05).