The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7294 p445
10 April 2004

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· Prescription fraud
· Care homes
· Methadone services
· Sugar in medicines
· Modernisation

Letters to the Editor

Sugar in medicines

Taste-masking for children

From Dr A. J. Nunn, FRPharmS

James Wells (PJ, 3 April, p415) provides a timely reminder of the benefits of sucrose to mask the taste of medicines for children. He questions the ethics of exposing children rather than adults to active compounds when taste-testing, yet we know that taste perception in children is quite different from that in adults.^1,2 We need in vitro methods that will mimic the taste perception of children and allow experimentation with a variety of taste-masking excipients. Appropriate electronic devices are being developed.³ Until they become routinely available it can be possible to use children with the disease to be treated to determine acceptability of a formulation, including taste.^4,5 There are also several examples in the literature of child volunteers being recruited to taste-testing studies of low-risk active compounds such as antibiotics, with the agreement of ethics committees.^6–8

Tony Nunn
Director of Pharmacy, Royal Liverpool Children’s NHS Trust

References

1. Liem DG,Mennella JA. Heightened sour preferences during childhood. Chemical Senses 2003;28:173–80.
2. Mennella JA, Jagnow CP, Beauchamp GK. Prenatal and postnatal flavor learning by human infants. Pediatrics 2001;107(Suppl):E88.
3. Uchida T, Tanigake A, Miyanaga Y, Matsuyama K, Kunitomo M, Kobayashi Y et al. Evaluation of the bitterness of antibiotics using a taste sensor. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 2003;55:1479–85.
4. Marshall J, Rodarte A, Blumer J, Khoo KC, Akbari B, Kearns G. Pediatric pharmacodynamics of midazolam oral syrup. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2000;40:578–89.
5. Stevens R, Votan B, Lane R, Schaison G, Hewitt M, Kohler J et al. A randomized study of ondansetron syrup in children: evaluation of taste acceptability and tolerance. Pediatric Hematology and Oncology 1996;13:199–202.
6. Tolia V, Johnston G, Stolle J, Lee C. Flavor and taste of lansoprazole strawberry-flavored delayed-release oral suspension preferred over ranitidine peppermint-flavored oral syrup in children aged between 5–11 years. Paediatric Drugs 2004;6:127–31.
7. Dagnone D, Matsui D, Rieder MJ. Assessment of the palatability of vehicles for activated charcoal in pediatric volunteers. Pediatric Emergency Care 2002;18:19–21.
8. Angelilli ML, Toscani M, Matsui DM, Rieder MJ. Palatability of oral antibiotics among children in an urban primary care center. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2000;154:267–70.

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