Humans perceive numerous compounds as bitter. The bitterness of a compound often provides a hint to its potential toxicity, and aversion from bitterness helps refrain from consuming poisons. Well known example is strychnine. Some other bitter compounds, such as caffeine, while toxic in high dosages, are palatable and is consumed in large quantities. The amount of bitter compounds is estimated in thousands. But what are these compounds? How similar or different are their chemical properties? Do they act on the same or on different receptors? Is it possible to predict bitterness of a molecule? To enable investigation into these intriguing questions, we established BitterDB, a free and searchable database of bitter compounds. BitterDB currently holds over 550 bitter compounds obtained from the literature and from Merck index and their associated 25 human bitter taste receptors (hT2Rs). BitterDB provides several ways to investigate the bitter world: search for bitter compounds by different criteria, search for bitter molecules with structure similar to a query compound, blast bitter receptors and more. ... [Information of the supplier]
