为什么会有“世界讨厌香菜日”？

2024-02-25 15:02

昨天除了是元宵节，还是个奇怪的日子——世界讨厌香菜日（International 'I Hate Coriander' Day）。你喜欢吃香菜吗？有研究发现，爱不爱吃香菜似乎是基因决定的？

图源：X平台截图

从2016年起，2月24日被定为世界讨厌香菜日，每年的这一天讨厌香菜的人们就会团结起来，借机一起痛击香菜。

International I Hate Coriander Day is celebrated on February 24 each year and is a chance for haters of this herb to unite and have a good old coriander bashing session with the kindred spirits they can find.

coriander: n. 芫荽籽，香菜;

图源：newsd.

人们对于香菜这种草本植物一直以来分歧不断：有人喜欢，有人则反感。朱莉娅·查尔德（Julia Child）在1955年就宣称自己无法忍受香菜，称其有一种肥皂味——这种说法一直持续到现在。根据地理位置的不同，大约3%到21%的人因香菜的“肥皂味”而厌恶它。

Cilantro is one divisive herb: People either love it or hate it. Julia Child disavowed the stuff, claiming it had a soapy taste in 1955 — and the comparison stuck. Between 3% and 21% of people, depending on their location in the world, dislike cilantro for its soapiness.

cilantro: n. 芫荽叶；香菜

图源：The American Chemical Society

宾夕法尼亚州立大学食品科学教授、感官专家约翰·海斯（John Hayes）说：“没有人确切知道哪些基因与香菜偏好有关。” 但在一项大规模的观察性研究中，研究者证实了一种特定的嗅觉受体基因OR6A2与此有关。

John Hayes, a sensory expert and professor of food science at Penn State, said: "Nobody knows exactly which genes are involved in cilantro preference." But in a large observational study a specific olfactory receptor gene, OR6A2, has been implicated.

图源：The American Chemical Society

23andMe公司的一个团队调查了数千名受访者对香菜的偏好，发现了一种与讨厌香菜相关的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）。该公司的研究人员在2012年的《风味》（Flavour）杂志上报告称，SNP位于一组编码嗅觉受体的基因中。其中一个基因编码了受体OR6A2，而该受体恰好能与赋予香菜特殊气味的醛类物质（aldehydes）发生特异性结合。

A 23andMe team surveyed thousands of respondents about their cilantro preference and identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated with cilantro aversion. The SNP lies in a cluster of genes that code for olfactory receptors, researchers at the company reported in the journal Flavour in 2012.

One of those genes encodes for the receptor OR6A2, which happens to specifically bind to aldehydes that give cilantro its specific odor, according to 23andMe.

olfactory: adj. 嗅觉的，味道的；
aldehydes: n. 醛；[有化]醛类；

图源：The American Chemical Society

23andMe公司的研究结果还发现，对香菜的偏好可能是可遗传的，并且因种族而异。在南欧和北欧受访者中，约13%的人表示香菜尝起来像肥皂。但只有8%的东亚受访者和4%的南亚受访者不喜欢香菜。

The 23and Me study also found that cilantro preference is likely heritable and varies by ethnicity, according to 23andMe's findings. Of the Southern and Northern European respondents, about 13% said cilantro tastes like soap. But only 8% of East Asian respondents and 4% of South Asian respondents were anti-cilantro.