Consumption of plant-based food products having high composition of polyphenols leads to the sensation of astringency. For sliding oral surfaces, friction is an essential property during the oral perception of roughness and dryness which are attributes associated with astringency. Different factors including the chemical composition of interacting layers, structure and operation of interfaces have an effect on the astringency development process. The manner of interactions occurring at oral interfaces suggest there is a system dependence of astringency and highlights the importance of adopting a tribosystems approach. Available measurement techniques have shown an existing relationship between salivary protein-polyphenol interaction and an astringent mouthfeel. Nevertheless, the tribo-chemistry involved in this multifaceted sensation remains largely unexplored in a comprehensive manner. In this review the underlying tribo-chemical processes useful in understanding the mechanism of astringency are highlighted and discussed considering current techniques employed to investigate astringency perception. Loss of lubrication on oral surfaces owing to the tribo-chemical interactions involving saliva and astringent plant proteins requires subsequent deformations of oral tissues which are significant enough to induce strains at mechanoreceptor locations, leading to the sensation of astringency. It is proposed that micro-scale contact modelling on the interaction of food particles/aggregates, boundary layers and oral surfaces shows potential in addressing the knowledge gap between tribo-chemical measurement techniques and panel tests, making it possible to attain a predictor for astringency.

食用含有大量多酚的植物性食品会导致涩味。对于滑动的口腔表面，摩擦力是口腔感知粗糙度和干燥度时的一个基本特性，而粗糙度和干燥度是与涩味相关的属性。不同的因素，包括相互作用层的化学成分、界面的结构和操作，都会影响涩味的形成过程。口腔界面发生的相互作用方式表明涩味存在系统依赖性，并强调了采用摩擦系统方法的重要性。现有的测量技术表明唾液蛋白-多酚相互作用与涩味之间存在关系。然而，这种多方面感觉所涉及的摩擦化学在很大程度上仍未得到全面的探索。在这篇综述中，考虑到当前用于研究涩味感知的技术，强调并讨论了有助于理解涩味机制的潜在摩擦化学过程。由于涉及唾液和涩味植物蛋白的摩擦化学相互作用，口腔表面失去润滑，需要口腔组织随后发生变形，这种变形足以在机械感受器位置引起应变，从而导致涩味感。有人提出，关于食物颗粒/聚集体、边界层和口腔表面相互作用的微尺度接触模型显示出解决摩擦化学测量技术和面板测试之间知识差距的潜力，使得获得涩味的预测成为可能。