Monosodium like taste

The other commonly occurring amino acid with an acidic side-chain is glutamic acid. This compound is probably best known as its monosodium salt (monosodium glutamate or MSG). This salt is added to foods (especially oriental food) to enhance the flavour and impart a meat-like taste to the food. Interestingly, both the d enantiomer of glutamic acid and the naturally occurring l form are used as food additives. Use of the nonnatural d isomer may account for some of the adverse reactions experienced by consumers of MSG in food. 

Monosodium glutamate lor many years has been the best known and most widely used of the flavor enhancers. MSG is normally effective in terms ol a relatively few pans per thousand, but far less powerful than the newer flavor potentiators. Like enhancers, potentiators do not add any taste of their own to food substances, but intensify the taste response to the flavorings already present in the food. Because a potentiator is more powerful, smaller quantities of the substances are required than in the Case of the enhancers. Generally, the available potentiators are from about 15 to nearly 100 times more effective than tile enhancer. 

Ibotenic acid is a likely carcinogen. In humans, poisoning is manifested by hallucinations. Ibotenic and tricholomic acids exhibit taste properties similar to those of monosodium glutamate (umami taste, see Section 8.3), but much more intense. Muscimol has similar effects as y-aminobutyric acid (GABA or 4-aminobutanoic acid), which acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system. 

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