Astringent

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A crystal of the astringent alum AlumCrystal.jpg
A crystal of the astringent alum
The astringents and acids in fresh blackthorn berries (sloes) give the fruit its sourness. Closeup of blackthorn aka sloe aka prunus spinosa sweden 20050924.jpg
The astringents and acids in fresh blackthorn berries (sloes) give the fruit its sourness.

An astringent (sometimes called adstringent) is a chemical that shrinks or constricts body tissues. The word derives from the Latin adstringere , which means "to bind fast". Astringency, the dry, puckering or numbing mouthfeel caused by the tannins [1] [2] in unripe fruits, lets the fruit mature by deterring eating. Tannins, being a kind of polyphenol, bind salivary proteins and make them precipitate and aggregate, [3] [4] [5] producing a rough, "sandpapery", or dry sensation in the mouth.

Contents

Smoking tobacco is also reported to have an astringent effect. [6]

In a scientific study, astringency was still detectable by subjects who had local anesthesia applied to their taste nerves, but not when both these and the trigeminal nerves were disabled. [7]

Uses

In medicine, astringents cause constriction or contraction of mucous membranes and exposed tissues and are often used internally to reduce discharge of blood serum and mucous secretions. [8] This can happen with a sore throat, hemorrhages, diarrhea, and peptic ulcers. Externally applied astringents, which cause mild coagulation of skin proteins, dry, harden, and protect the skin. [9] People with acne are often advised to use astringents if they have oily skin. [10] Mild astringents relieve such minor skin irritations as those resulting from superficial cuts; allergies; insect bites; [9] anal hemorrhoids; [11] and fungal infections such as athlete's foot. [12] Redness-reducing eye drops contain an astringent. Use of Goulard's Extract has been discontinued due to lead poisoning.[ citation needed ]

Examples

Some common astringents are alum, acacia, sage, [13] yarrow, [14] witch hazel, bayberry, distilled vinegar, very cold water, and rubbing alcohol. Astringent preparations include silver nitrate, potassium permanganate, zinc oxide, zinc sulfate, Burow's solution, tincture of benzoin, and such vegetable substances as tannic and gallic acids. Balaustines are the red rose-like flowers of the pomegranate, which are very bitter to the taste. In medicine, their dried form has been used as an astringent. [15] Some metal salts and acids have also been used as astringents. [16]

Calamine lotion, witch hazel, and yerba mansa, are astringents, [17] as are the powdered leaves of the myrtle. [18] Ripe fruits and fruit parts including blackthorn (sloe berries), Aronia chokeberry, chokecherry, bird cherry, rhubarb, quince, jabuticaba and persimmon fruits (especially when unripe), banana skins (or unripe bananas), cashew fruits and acorns are astringent. [19] Citrus fruits, like lemons, are somewhat astringent. The tannins in some teas, coffee, and red grape wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot produce mild astringency.[ citation needed ] Astringency is used in classifications of white wine.

Related Research Articles

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Tannins are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acne</span> Skin condition characterized by pimples

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persimmon</span> Edible fruit

The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros. The most widely cultivated of these is the kaki persimmon, Diospyros kaki – Diospyros is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-persimmon species of the genus are grown for ebony timber. In 2019, China produced 75% of the world total of persimmons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch-hazel</span> Genus of plants

Witch-hazels or witch hazels (Hamamelis) are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with three species in North America, and one each in Japan (H. japonica) and China (H. mollis). The North American species are occasionally called winterbloom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zinc sulfate</span> Chemical compound

Zinc sulfate describes a family of inorganic compounds with the formula ZnSO4(H2O)x. All are colorless solids. The most common form includes water of crystallization as the heptahydrate, with the formula ZnSO4·7H2O. As early as the 16th century it was prepared on the large scale, and was historically known as "white vitriol" (the name was used, for example, in 1620s by the collective writing under the pseudonym of Basil Valentine). Zinc sulfate and its hydrates are colourless solids.

Keratolytic therapy is a type of medical treatment to remove warts, calluses and other lesions in which the epidermis produces excess skin. In this therapy, acidic topical medicines, such as Whitfield's ointment or Jessner's solution, are applied to the lesion in order to thin the skin on and around it. This therapy causes the outer layer of the skin to loosen and shed.

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Wine and food matching is the process of pairing food dishes with wine to enhance the dining experience. In many cultures, wine has had a long history of being a staple at the dinner table and in some ways both the winemaking and culinary traditions of a region will have evolved together over the years. Rather than following a set of rules, local cuisines were paired simply with local wines. The modern "art" of food pairings is a relatively recent phenomenon, fostering an industry of books and media with guidelines for pairings of particular foods and wine. In the restaurant industry, sommeliers are often present to make food pairing recommendations for the guest. The main concept behind pairings is that certain elements in both food and wine interact with each other, and thus finding the right combination of these elements will make the entire dining experience more enjoyable. However, taste and enjoyment are very subjective and what may be a "textbook perfect" pairing for one taster could be less enjoyable to another.

<i>Mammea americana</i> Species of tree

Mammea americana, commonly known as mammee, mammee apple, mamey, mamey apple, Santo Domingo apricot, tropical apricot, or South American apricot, is an evergreen tree of the family Calophyllaceae, whose fruit is edible. It has also been classified as belonging to the family Guttiferae Juss. (1789), which would make it a relative of the mangosteen.

<i>Gymnema sylvestre</i> Species of flowering plant

Gymnema sylvestre is a perennial woody vine native to Asia, Africa and Australia. It has been used in Ayurvedic medicine. Common names include gymnema, Australian cowplant, and Periploca of the woods, and the Hindi term gurmar, which means "sugar destroyer".

<i>Arctium lappa</i> Species of flowering plant

Arctium lappa, commonly called greater burdock, gobō (牛蒡/ゴボウ), edible burdock, lappa, beggar's buttons, thorny burr, or happy major is a Eurasian species of plants in the family Asteraceae, cultivated in gardens for its root used as a vegetable. It has become an invasive weed of high-nitrogen soils in North America, Australia, and other regions.

<i>Diospyros kaki</i> Oriental fruit

Diospyros kaki, the Oriental persimmon, Chinese persimmon, Japanese persimmon or kaki persimmon, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Diospyros. Although its first botanical description was not published until 1780, D. kaki cultivation in China dates back more than 2000 years.

Bletting is a process of softening that certain fleshy fruits undergo, beyond ripening. There are some fruits that are either sweeter after some bletting, such as sea buckthorn, or for which most varieties can be eaten raw only after bletting, such as medlars, persimmons, quince, service tree fruit, and wild service tree fruit. The rowan or mountain ash fruit must be bletted and cooked to be edible, to break down the toxic parasorbic acid (hexenollactone) into sorbic acid.

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The use of wine tasting descriptors allows the taster to qualitatively relate the aromas and flavors that the taster experiences and can be used in assessing the overall quality of wine. Wine writers differentiate wine tasters from casual enthusiasts; tasters attempt to give an objective description of the wine's taste, casual enthusiasts appreciate wine but pause their examination sooner than tasters. The primary source of a person's ability to taste wine is derived from their olfactory senses. A taster's own personal experiences play a significant role in conceptualizing what they are tasting and attaching a description to that perception. The individual nature of tasting means that descriptors may be perceived differently among various tasters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taste</span> Sense of chemicals on the tongue

The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste (flavor). Taste is the perception stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds in the oral cavity, mostly on the tongue. Taste, along with the sense of smell and trigeminal nerve stimulation, determines flavors of food and other substances. Humans have taste receptors on taste buds and other areas, including the upper surface of the tongue and the epiglottis. The gustatory cortex is responsible for the perception of taste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phlobaphene</span>

Phlobaphenes are reddish, alcohol-soluble and water-insoluble phenolic substances. They can be extracted from plants, or be the result from treatment of tannin extracts with mineral acids. The name phlobaphen come from the Greek roots φλoιὀς (phloios) meaning bark and βαφή (baphe) meaning dye.

<i>Blumea balsamifera</i> Species of flowering plant

Blumea balsamifera is a flowering plant belonging to the genus Blumea of the family Asteraceae. It is also known as Ngai camphor and sambong.

<i>Quercus infectoria</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus infectoria or the Aleppo oak is a species of oak well known for producing galls that have been traditionally used for centuries in Asia medicinally while also used in softening leather and in making black dye and ink.

Hydnocarpus wightianus or chaulmoogra is a tree in the Achariaceae family. Hydnocarpus wightiana seed oil has been widely used in traditional Indian medicine, especially in Ayurveda, and in Chinese traditional medicine for the treatment of leprosy. It entered early Western medicine in the nineteenth century before the era of sulfonamides and other antibiotics for the treatment of several skin diseases and leprosy. The oil was prescribed for leprosy as a mixture suspended in gum or as an emulsion.

This is a list of plants used by the indigenous people of North America. For lists pertaining specifically to the Cherokee, Iroquois, Navajo, and Zuni, see Cherokee ethnobotany, Iroquois ethnobotany, Navajo ethnobotany, and Zuni ethnobotany.

References

  1. ↑ Ray, P. K. (2002). Breeding Tropical and Subtropical Fruits. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN   9783540428558 . Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  2. ↑ Joslyn, Maynard (2012-12-02). Methods in Food Analysis: Applied to Plant Products. Elsevier. ISBN   9780323146814.
  3. ↑ Fennema, Food Chemistry, 4th ed., p. 656.
  4. ↑ Breslin, P.A.S.; Gilmore, M.M.; Beauchamp, G.K.; Green, B.G. (1993). "Psychophysical evidence that oral astringency is a tactile sensation". Chemical Senses. 18 (4): 405–417. doi:10.1093/chemse/18.4.405.
  5. ↑ Bertsch, Pascal; Bergfreund, Jotam; Windhab, Erich J.; Fischer, Peter (August 2021). "Physiological fluid interfaces: Functional microenvironments, drug delivery targets, and first line of defense". Acta Biomaterialia. 130: 32–53. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.05.051 . hdl: 20.500.11850/498803 . PMID   34077806. S2CID   235323337.
  6. ↑ McBride, Nome. "Herbal Smoking Mixes" (PDF). Traditional Roots Institute. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  7. ↑ Jiang, Yue; Gong, Naihua N.; Matsunami, Hiroaki (2014). "Astringency: A More Stringent Definition". Chemical Senses. 39 (6): 467–469. doi:10.1093/chemse/bju021. ISSN   0379-864X. PMC   4064959 . PMID   24860069.
  8. ↑ Brodin, Michael (1998). The Over-The-Counter Drug Book. Simon and Schuster. p. 382. ISBN   978-0-671-01380-6 . Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  9. 1 2 Peter A. Ciullo (31 December 1996). Industrial Minerals and Their Uses: A Handbook and Formulary. William Andrew. p. 407. ISBN   978-0-8155-1808-2 . Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  10. ↑ Acne from http://www.brown.edu
  11. ↑ Acheson, Austin; Scholefield, John (2008-02-16). "Management of haemorrhoids". BMJ. 336 (7640): 380–383. doi:10.1136/bmj.39465.674745.80. PMC   2244760 . PMID   18276714.
  12. ↑ Dockery, Gary L.; Crawford, Mary Elizabeth (1999). Color Atlas of Foot and Ankle Dermatology. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 171. ISBN   978-0-397-51519-6 . Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  13. ↑ Dorland, W. A. Newman (1907). The American illustrated medical dictionary (4th ed.). Philadelphia and London: W.B. Saunders company. pp. 14, 39, 635. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  14. ↑ Grieve, Maud (1 June 1971). A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific Uses. Dover Publications. pp. 863–864. ISBN   978-0-486-22799-3 . Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  15. ↑ History of Science: Cyclopædia, or, An universal dictionary of arts and sciences…
  16. ↑ Gregory, James (1833). Conspectus medicinae theoretic medicine; in two parts: Part I. Containing physiology and pathology. Part II. Containing therapeutics (2nd ed.). London: Stirling & Kenneg. pp.  255–256. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  17. ↑ Anemopsis californica from University of California, Irvine
  18. ↑ Borg, John (1927). "Descriptive flora of the Maltese Islands".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ↑ Choi, Nak-Eon; Han, Jung H. (2014-12-03). How Flavor Works: The Science of Taste and Aroma. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   9781118865453.
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