ABSTRACT
The implications of variations in response to the taste of the compounds phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) and 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) have been investigated for more than 60 years. Yet it is only in the past two decades that this phenomenon has begun to create serious interest among chemosensory psychophysicists. Despite some contradictory and negative findings (see Chapter 11 in this volume), this interest has produced a body of research showing that variations in sensitivity to the bitterness of PTC and, especially, PROP are also associated with variations in sensitivity to other taste compounds-both other bitter compounds and compounds that stimulate other tastes qualities.
