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Taste from Seaweed Broth by Kikunae Ikeda, Who Transcended His Time

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Taste from Seaweed Broth by Kikunae Ikeda, Who Transcended His Time DOI: 10.1002/asia.201000899 One Hundred Years since the Discovery of the “Umami” Taste from Seaweed Broth by Kikunae Ikeda, who Transcended his Time Eiichi Nakamura*[a] On the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo In 1912, Kikunae Ikeda, Professor of Physical Chemistry Washington and New York (for the whole text, see the Sup- in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Science at porting Information), in which he referred to:[1] “A new pri- Tokyo Imperial University (Figure 1), gave a lecture at the mary taste quality. There are four well-defined taste quali- Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry held in ties, viz., sweet, sour, bitter, and briny. An attentive taster will find something common in the complicated taste of as- paragus, tomato, cheese, and meat, which is quite peculiar and cannot be classed under any of the above-mentioned qualities.” He continued, “The reason why we find that the glutamic taste is pleasant must be sought in the fact that glu- tamates are often present in minute quantities in nutritious matter of albuminous nature and mostly of animal origin”, and further, “The manufacture of glutamate will doubtless inaugurate a new branch of the chemical industry, that of the decomposition products of albuminous matters.”[2,3] He pointed out exactly the true nature of his own discovery. It was the moment when the discovery of the fifth taste, named the umami taste by Ikeda, was announced to the Western world, 2300 years after Aristotle described the four tastes.[4,5] Four years earlier, in 1908, Ikeda isolated glutamate, one of the natural amino acids, from seaweed broth (Figure 2) and published a paper the following year in the Journal of the Tokyo Chemical Society,[6,7] in which he mentions that glutamate makes even a humble meal taste better, just as sodium chloride does.[8] In 1909, in collaboration with Ikeda, Figure 1. Kikunae Ikeda (1864–1936). A photo owned by the Department Saburosuke Suzuki started producing a seasoning on a com- of Chemistry of The University of Tokyo, which hangs on the wall of the mercial basis, and this product was named “Ajinomoto”, library. meaning, quintessence of flavor. Ikeda found (and we can easily study at home) that humans can sense glutamate at a concentration as low as 0.01% in water—far lower than the detection limit of [a] Prof. Dr. E. Nakamura sodium chloride and sugar—and that it is essential for a Department of Chemistry meal to taste good. He also found that sodium glutamate The University of Tokyo and sodium chloride synergistically enhance the taste of a 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan) meal.[6] It is no wonder that Europeans add cheese and Fax : (+81)3-5800-6889 E-mail: [email protected] tomato to a soup, and Asians use seaweed broth, soy sauce, Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW or fish sauce for their meal. Parmigiano reggiano contains a under http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asia.201000899. large amount (1.7 wt%) of glutamate, and matured Chem. Asian J. 2011, 6, 1659 – 1663 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1659 ESSAYS Figure 3. Three compounds responsible for the umami taste: glutamate, inosinic acid dianion, and guanylic acid dianion. Data taken from Ref. [12]. Kodama found that these compounds synergistically enhanced the umami taste, which humans knew by experience. tomato>2% of its dry weight (Figure 3). Aristotle must have enjoyed the taste of fish sauce (garos, then very popu- lar in Greece, or better known now as Roman garum) but did not notice that the good taste comes from glutamate. Figure 2. a) The bottle of the first sample of sodium glutamate extracted Notably, half of the amino acid content in human breast from the broth of seaweed by Kikunae Ikeda, b) the evaporating dish used for the extraction (owned by the Department of Chemistry, the Uni- milk is glutamate, and babies enjoy its taste (human amnion versity of Tokyo), and c) an autographed manuscript of his lecture for liquid also contains a large quantity of glutamate, whilst cow the 1912 meeting (owned by the Chemical Society of Japan). The bottle milk contains very little).[9,10] and the crystals were registered as “Essential Historical Material for Sci- Aristotles four tastes are the indicators of a nutritious ence and Technology” in 2009 by the National Museum of Nature and diet and of the warning against unhealthy food: sweet for Science, Tokyo. sugar, salty for sodium chloride, sour for acid, and bitter for alkaloids. Where is the indicator for the most important nu- trition, proteins and nucleic acids? It is the umami taste, dis- covered first as the glutamate ion in seaweed broth by Eiichi Nakamura received his PhD in Ikeda. Two other umami compounds were isolated later in Chemistry from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and did his postdoctoral Japan—inosinic acid dianion (inosine monophosphate) from work at the Chemistry Department, Co- dried bonito by Kodama in 1913,[11] and guanylic acid dia- lumbia University. He returned to his nion (guanosine monophosphate) from dried shiitake mush- alma mater as Assistant Professor (1980– room by Kuninaka in 1956 (Figure 4).[12] Kuninaka also 1984), was promoted to Full Professor (1993), and moved to his present position found that sodium glutamate and the 5’-ribonucleotides syn- [13] at the University of Tokyo in 1995. He ergistically enhance the umami taste. Obviously, they are has served as Senior Program Officer in the degradation products of proteins and genetic materials Chemistry, JSPS (2003–2007) and that are widely present in dried and cooked meats, fish ERATO program research director, JST sauce, soy sauce, and vegetables. (2004–2010). Awards and Honors: Young Chemists Award (Chemical Society of Is it not logical that umami compounds stimulate our ap- Japan, 1984); the Japan IBM Science Prize (1993); an Elected Fellow of petite and help digestion of the meal? Humans have a gluta- the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1998); the mate-receptor protein on the surface of their tongue[14] and Chemical Society of Japan Award (2003); an Elected Foreign Fellow of stomach,[15] and when the presence of glutamate in our diet the Royal Society of Chemistry (U.K., 2005); Humboldt Research Award (2006); Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and is detected, a signal is generated, reaches our brain, and Sciences (2008); the Medal with Purple Ribbon, The Japanese Govern- might stimulate our appetite as well as our intestines, but ment (2009); the A. C. Cope Scholar Award, the American Chemical Soci- this biological mechanism of the function of glutamate was ety (2010). Research field: organic synthesis, physical organic chemistry, discovered only at the beginning of the 21th century. How- nano-science. ever, it took 100 years for Ikedas discovery of the umami 1660 www.chemasianj.org 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Chem. Asian J. 2011, 6, 1659 – 1663 One Hundred Years since the Discovery of the “Umami” Taste Figure 4. Ripened tomato, cheese, and portini are rich in sodium gluta- mate and other umami substances, which accounts for their importance in European cuisine. In their place, the Japanese use seaweed and shi- itake mushrooms, which are also rich in umami. taste to be recognized internationally, indicating that the originality and innovative ideas of Ikeda transcended his own time. The commercialization of the umami seasoning was the first example of a successful university–industry cooperative project in Japan, which would not have been possible with- out Ikedas willingness to contribute to society through basic science.[16] Thus, Ikedas patent on the glutamate sea- soning is listed among 10 historic inventions in Japan by the Patent Office.[17] Ikeda was born in Kyoto in 1864 as the second son of a samurai family (Satsuma clan in Kyushu). As the family de- clined after the Meiji Restoration, he sold his own futon (a sleeping mattress) to raise the money to enter the Universi- Figure 5. Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) and his oil painting ty of Tokyo. His English was so good then that he is said given to Ikeda. The photo was taken from http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcol- have lectured on Shakespeare in a private college to earn lections/hst/scientific-identity/fullsize/SIL14-O001-15a.jpg.[24] The painting his living. In 1899, Ikeda left Japan for Leipzig, Germany, to depicts a scene of the sea shore, thought to be at Marblehead, Massachu- setts (USA), and is hung in the conference hall of the Chemical Society study under Dr. Wilhelm Ostwald (Figure 5), who was of Japan (photograph reproduced courtesy of the Chemical Society of awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work Japan). An accompanying plate says in German: From Prof. Dr. Wilhelm on catalysis, chemical equilibria, and reaction rates.[18] Wil- Ostwald/Painted by himself in the year 1914, by the use of his self-made helm Ostwald not only reached the pinnacle of his field but dyes/—Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Kikunae— also developed the Ostwald process for the production of nitric acid. He published Die Schule der Chemie, a great textbook in a dialogue style that extensively explained the ber arguing with him and in the end being defeated almost principles of natural science. He was an established painter completely.” Ikedas discovery of the umami taste demon- (Figure 5), and worked on color theory. He was a true strated his true value as a natural philosopher.
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