Question

What are the four basic taste sensations?

Answer 1

Hint: Humans have five sense organs: eyes to see the world around us, nose to smell, ear to hear, skin to feel touch, and tongue to taste different food items. We eat different types of food in our life. All food has a different taste.

Step by step answer:The four basic tastes that our tongue senses are sweet, bitter, salty, and sour. The tongue has small projections known as papillae, some of them bear taste buds. This taste bud detects the different types of tastes. When food is mixed with saliva the taste receptor cell on the taste bud activates and detects the taste of food. Citrus foods are sour in taste. Sugar and it’s derivatives like fructose sucrose and glucose are sweet in taste.
Additional Information: The tongue is a muscular organ present in the mouth. It is a freely movable organ attached to the oral cavity by the frenulum.
The function of the Tongue
1. The tongue helps in the mastication of food.
2. It has a taste bud to detect different types of food items.
3. Tongue also helps in talking.

Note: Unami is also a taste sensation. Some people describe umami taste similar to the taste of meat so it is also known as meaty taste. Mushrooms also give umami taste on eating. Some theories suggest that different portions of tongue sense specific taste like the front portion of tongue sense sweet, back portion sense bitter and the middle portion sense sour and salty taste but this theory is not proved. The detection of taste is not only a function of the tongue but smell also helps in the detection of flavour of food.