Why should an organic chemist study sweet taste

The interest for sweeteners started well before the systematic study of sweet taste. Nevertheless, it was the hypothesis of the existence of a specific chemoreception mechanism that stimulated organic chemists to consider this area a fertile field for basic research and applications. Organic chemistry has given a large contribute to the elucidation of the sweet taste mechanism and to the discovery of new active compounds. The synthesis of new natural and artificial ligands with an appropriate control of conformational and stereochemical properties; the study of physico-chemical properties in order to optimise chemical stability and solubility; the calculations of molecular descriptors to be used in structure-activity relationships and to develop new models of ligand-receptor interactions: These are only some of the many aspects that an organic chemist could develop in studying sweet taste and sweeteners. The chapter will focus on the experience of our research group in various aspects of organic chemistry applied to the study of sweet taste.