Sweetness enhancement and mechanism by sweet aroma compounds in the sucrose solution using sensory, electronic tongue, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation

This study investigated the sweetness-enhancing effects of nine sweet aroma compounds from sweet orange on 5% sucrose solution. Through static sensory evaluations and electronic tongue analysis, carveol was found to enhance sweetness most significantly (28.8%), followed by γ-decalactone (23.2%), γ-nonalactone (23.0%), and δ-decalactone (20.0%). By using the time-intensity method for dynamic sensory evaluation, it was shown that the perception of sweetness increased rapidly and the duration was slightly prolonged after the addition of sweet aroma compounds. Molecular docking showed a binding free energy of −5.9 kcal/mol for the T1R2/T1R3-sucrose complex. Ternary complexes with added aromatic compounds had substantially lower energies (−8.62 to −10.5 kcal/mol), indicating enhanced receptor-ligand affinity. Molecular dynamics results showed that the addition of aromatic compounds led to the decrease in the binding energy of the T1R2/T1R3-sucrose system, the enhancement of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions, and the stabilization of dynamic changes in protein conformation. • Sweet aroma compounds boost sucrose sweetness via taste-aroma interaction. • Carveol most boosts sucrose sweetness intensity (28.8%) among compounds. • Time-intensity shows aromas hasten sweetness start, slightly extend duration. • Molecular docking shows binding free energy reduced from −5.9 to −8.6 ~ −10.5 kcal/mol. • MD simulations show enhanced hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions.