This study was ai med to observe the taste-masking effects of Neotame on bitter Chinese herbal ingredients. Five kinds of herbal ingredients, which include Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, Cortex Phellodendri chinensis, Coptis chinensis Franch, Gentiana scabra Bunge, Andrographis paniculata, were selected to measure the bitterness degree of decoctions with berberine solution as the benchmark. The decreasing of bitterness degree was used as index. Healthy volunteers were recruited to taste and compare the changes of bitterness of decoctions with the taste-masking effects of Neotame. Different concentrations of Neotame were selected in the determination of the influence on changes of bitterness. The results showed that when the concentration of Neotame was at 0.012 5‰-0.4‰, taste-masking effects of Neotame on selected herbal decoctions were in a concentration-dependent fashion. When the concentration of Neotame was 0.4‰, the reduced bitterness of S. baicalensis Georgi and Cortex P. chinensis decoctions were 1.22 and 1.77, by 70.11% and 71.88%, respectively. Three highly-bitter herbal ingredients C. chinensis Franch, G. scabra Bunge and A . paniculata were also reduced in bitter taste by 49.12%, 50.87% and 38.39%, with the bitter reduced value (△I) of 1.78, 2.02 and 1.43, respectively. It was concluded that Neotame exerted taste masking potential on bitter herbal ingredients with different bitter degrees.

OBJECTIVE:To optimize the extraction technology of garlic oil. METHODS:Using extraction rate of garlic oil as index,based on single factor test,Box-Behnken response surface method was used to optimize conditions of steam distillation method for the extraction of garlic as fermentation time,solid to liquid ratio,fermentation temperature and the verification test were made for the optimized technology. RESULTS:The optimal extraction technology was as follows as fermentation time of 4.5 h,solid to liquid ratio of 1:7,fermentation temperature of 55 ℃. The average extraction rate of garlic oil in verification test was 0.32%(RSD=1.43%,n=3);the relative error between the measured value and predicted value was 0.06%. CONCLUSIONS:Box-Behnken response surface method is simple,reasonable and feasible to optimize the extraction technology of garlic oil,which can provide a scientific basis for industrial production.