Umami

For the record label, see Umami Records.

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 (simplified Chinese: 鲜味; traditional Chinese: 鮮味) 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 osmazome, 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. 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 thought by Drs. Stephen Roper and Nirupa Chaudhari, researchers at the University of Miami, when they identified the actual receptors responsible for the sense of umami, a modified form of mGluR4, in which the end of the molecule is missing. Roper and Chaudhari named it 'taste-mGluR4'.

See also

• Basic taste
• Monosodium glutamate
• Inosine monophosphate

External links

• Trade Group Website
• Discovery of Umami
• Discovery of Umami Receptors
• A taste for umami
• Society for Research on Umami Taste