Phenylthiocarbamide Lab Report

Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) is an organic compound that contains crystals. The molecular formula of PTC is C7H8N2S. The ability to taste PTC is a dominant trait. A chemist named Arthur Fox was the first person to observe the different taste reaction to PTC (Wooding 2006). In 1931, Arthur accidently blew powdered PTC into the air and his coworker believed that it was bitter. When Arthur tasted the PTC, he tasted nothing at all. He tested his friends and family members with the PTC sample. Arthur discovered that his friends and family members also had different taste from the PTC powder (Wooding 2006). In the mouth, there are taste buds that contain gustatory cells. The gustatory cells are covered with bitter taste receptors. When these receptor are stimulated, a message is sent to the brain that bitterness is detected (Wooding 2006). There are two common alleles in the PTC gene: the tasting allele and the non-tasting allele. Each allele ciphers for a different receptor protein. TAS2R38 is a gene that gives the ability of people to taste PTC (Wooding 2006). A person is homozygote recessive for the TAS2R38 gene if it is not able to taste PTC. A person is homozygous dominant for …show more content…
They will be given Phenylthiocarbamide test strips. The strips have a concentration of 0.007 mg. these will allow the tasters to know if they are non PTC tasters. Participants will use water to wash their mouths in order to get any remains that were left behind. After this was done, the testers will be given dark chocolate (85% cocoa). The testers will describe what they taste when they ate the dark chocolate. They will use the following choices to describe the dark chocolate: very bitter, moderately bitter, faintly bitter or not bitter at all. From the tester’s conclusion, the date will be organized into charts. From the data, a connection can be seen between fondness of dark chocolate and the capability to taste