Interaction of polyphenols with model membranes: Putative implications to mouthfeel perception

Food polyphenols in fruits juices, tea, coffee, wine and beer confer sensory properties such as colour, astringency and bitterness. The development of functional healthy drinks without the unpleasant sensory feeling is boosting research for a clearer understanding on the interactions of polyphenols within the oral mucosa. In this study we investigated the interaction of astringent polyphenols, namely ECG, EGCG, procyanidin B4 and PGG, with lipids in model membranes by spectroscopic techniques. The membrane model was built varying the cholesterol content to mimic mouth regions and experiments were conducted at pH 5 to mimic the pH drop at the moment of beverage (e.g. green tea, red wine) intake. Fluorescence quenching results conducted on LUVs with cholesterol molar fractions ranging between 0.34 < χ_chol < 0.74 and similar size distributions (122.9 ± 3.7 nm) showed that interaction of polyphenols is structure- and concentration-dependent. Also, the decrease of partition constants (K_p) with increasing cholesterol content (χchol) suggest that the affinity of polyphenols is weaker in cholesterol-rich liposomes. STD results revealed that the interaction of EGCG and PGG with membrane lipids involved mainly galloyl residues. Overall, spectroscopic data show that polyphenols interact to higher extent with more polar regions found in buccal, flour of the mouth and gingiva regions than with more hydrophobic regions located in the palate and tongue supporting that lipid microenvironments play a role in oral sensory perception.