Receptor-Selective and Concentration-Dependent Responses to Vanillin-Ethyl Vanillin Mixtures: An Integrated Sensory and Statistical-Physics Analysis.

Authors

Quanping Yan, Qinguo Quan, Ge Zhao, Fuwei Xie, Cong Nie, Juan Wang, Baoguo Sun, Dandan Pu

Published in

Journal of agricultural and food chemistry. Volume 74. Issue 43. Pages 34175-34189. Nov 04, 2026.

Abstract

Vanillin (V) and ethyl vanillin (EV) are frequently combined in flavor formulations, but composition-dependent sensory profiles and olfactory receptor responses remain unclear. Sensory evaluation showed stronger creamy notes in EV-rich mixtures and stronger vanilla and sweet notes in V-rich mixtures compared with the 1:1 mixture. Among four human olfactory receptors tested in HEK293 cells, OR2J2 and OR10G4 responded most strongly. OR2J2 showed no consistent supra-additivity. OR10G4 exhibited supra-additivity with one component fixed at 100.00-500.00 μmol/L and the other varied within direction-dependent low-to-intermediate ranges of 1.95-500.00 μmol/L, shifting to subadditivity when the fixed component reached 1000.00 μmol/L. Statistical-physics monolayer modeling suggested that receptor selectivity reflected stronger energetic stabilization of V by OR2J2 and greater configurational adaptability of EV within OR10G4. Single-ligand, simultaneous dual-ligand, and sequential docking revealed vertically separated co-occupancy in OR2J2 but side-by-side, order-dependent accommodation in OR10G4. These findings advance understanding of odorant mixture perception and inform future formulation studies.

PMID:
42980450
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 04 Nov 2026.

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