Mint feel without the taste, new additive discovered

A natural food additive with 35 times the cooling power of menthol - but no minty flavour - could be soon bringing a cool tang to a wide range of products.

The New Scientist reports that researchers, led by Thomas Hofmann at the German Research Centre for Food Chemistry in Garching, Munich have discovered a new substance that "cools"​ skin 250 times as intensely as mint. The scientists claim that this new additive could be used in products such as beer, bottled water, citrus drinks, chocolate and confectionery, as well as cosmetics such as anti-perspirants.

According to the research the effects of the new substance last for half an hour, twice as long as menthol, the extract that gives peppermint and spearmint their icy zing.

"We've found the world's most powerful natural cooling agent without a mint odour,"​ says Hofmann.

Hofmann's team isolated the substance from roasted dark malt, a key ingredient for brewing beers and whiskies. It belongs to a family of chemicals called cyclic alpha-keto enamines. When a panel of tasters sampled the substance, they found it cooled as well as menthol even when concentrations were 35 times lower. It also cooled skin as effectively at concentrations 250 times lower.

Hofmann says that like menthol, the substance "cools"​ by its effect on nerve endings. "There's no evaporation, and no temperature change,"​ he says. So cooling is a slight misnomer. Nevertheless, Taylor says that like menthol, the substance activates so-called "trigeminal"​ receptors found throughout the mouth, cheeks and throat. They seem to register spice-based "temperature" - anything from the hotness of curry to the coolness of menthol, he says. Hofmann anticipates that the first "supercooled"​ products could be on the market within two years.