Product Design
Candidate Stimulants for Trigeminal Screening
Fields
- Author
- SOUTHWICK, R
- Recipient
- Carchman, R
Technologies used to measure, control, or alter sensory effects
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PHILIP MORRIS U. S. A.
INTER-OFF'IC'E CORR'ESP'ONDEN'CE
Richmond, Virginia
To: R. Carchman Date: October 3, 1991
From: R. Southwick
Subject: CandidateSt'imuIantsf'orTrigeminalScreening
In 11989, an examination of a variety of stimulants was carried out to ascertain
whether subjective testing of trigeminal stimulants was feasible. A panel was established
to operate using the same prot'oco1as the Odor Profile panel. A list of 17 descriptors was
created~ which encompassed all known aspects of trigeminal response. Using a 5-point scale,
stimuli which:received a high score for one or more descriptors would'e then be considered'
"trigeminal" whereas low scores on all descriptorswould result in classifying the compound
as "non-trigeminall"
The stimuli were selected from the odor database by searching for compounds with
high scores for cooling, pungent, ammonia, or spicy. This list was augmented! with compounds
described by Leffingwell' as being harsh or having body and compounds in Arctander havin~
odor or flavor descriptions suggestive of trigeminal effects. A final pool of more than 150
stimuli was assembled from which 30 were selected for screening. Representative compounds
such as a tertiary amine, carboxylic acid, amide etc. were included as well as 5 stimuli
which probably were "non-trigeminal" (olfactory)'.
Evaluation of the panel data for these 30 representative stimulant~sled to the
following conclusions:
1. Trigeminal and olfactory stimulants could be differentiatedi Vanillhn
(olfactory) mapped along the vector "dulls"whereas acetic acid! ('trigeminal)appeared as pungent.
2. The odor profiling database can be used to select candidat'es: Descriptors which
were found to reflect trigeminal response include "cooling," "like ammonia,"'
"sour acid," "sharp; pungent" and "black pepper-like."
3. Different classes of trigeminal stimuli~were separated': Acetic acid (pungent),
menthol (cool) and nicotine (prickly) mapped into different quadrants.
Based oni these conclusions, initial trigerninal screening,could include someof t!hee
stimuli described in this study. In particular, vanillin (non-trigeminal)s rnenthol'.
(trigeminal, cooling), acetic acid'i ('trigeminal, pungent) and nicotine (t~rigen3inal, prickly)

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exhibit a broad range of response. This would establish that the screening assays give the
same or better degree of discrimination as does a human~panel.
Of nearly 30 compounds tested, only four mapped near nicotine in the trigeminEil
multi-dimensional space. This reflects the skill involved! in the selection of candidate
stimuli. Interestingly, none of the 4 compounds (n-butylidenephthalide, pyridine
phenylacetic acid', and 1-(3-rnethylbutyryl) pyrrolidine have the same functional group and,
with the exception of pyridine, all differ frominicotine as well. They were perceived to be
as "prickly" as nicotine but none of these exhibitedl the full sensory properties of nicotine
in subjective testing in cigarettes.
/ds 4~S~
cc:
H. Grubbs
Y. Houminer
J. Seeman
