I mean I remember I got H1N1 when I was a kid (I’m 19 years old right now), and the doctor prescribed me this medicine. I know that medicine isn’t supposed to taste good, however this one is the worst of the worst.
I was also prescribed tablets for depression, and the tablets taste gross when is dissolves in my mouth.
Why is it that 99% of medications don’t taste good?
In: Chemistry
Our taste receptors simple register electrical impulses when a molecule binds to them, which is interpreted by the brain as taste.
Overall, there’s not a heck of a lot of chemical compounds out there that we know of that taste “good” to any given person, even when you account for variability in tastes. Chemical space is mind-boggingly large, almost larger than we’re capable of comprehending. And the molecules and combinations thereof that give rise to things we think taste good is miniscule in comparison.
When you make a brand new pharmaceutical drug, that likely has never before existed on earth, the chance of that drug tasting like, say, cinnamon is probably zero unless it contained the molecule [Cinnamaldehyde](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamaldehyde), which is where that flavor comes from. Since having flavor molecules mixed in with a drug would run the risk of chemically interfering with its behavior in the body, there’s no reason to add such molecules to make drugs more palatable.
So that kids don’t eat them like candy. Children are not very smart, and if it’s yummy they’ll take too much and die.
I’m no expert but just to give you some perspective, I think the problem lies with what we perceive “consumable”. We think that if we’re to consume something, it should taste good. That’s the case with candies, chocolates and all kinds of other food out there, which have been specifically designed for you to like them and consume them. Because “tasting good” is their only purpose, and that’s how they sell.
On the other hand, drugs have totally different purposes, and “tasting good” is not one of them. They “could” make them taste good, but then they’d be a lot more complicated to develop, and certainly a lot more expensive too.
So, there’s no particular effort to make drugs taste bad. That’s why they could taste literally like anything. On the contrary, there’s a particular effort to make food taste good, because its purpose is to give you pleasure and otherwise you wouldn’t buy it.
Some tablets deliberately contain compounds to make them taste bad, this way people don’t grind them up and use them to make illegal drugs in larger quantities.
Tablets often contain binders, salts, preservatives, and other things to help them stick together. Many of these compounds on their own can taste bitter.
Capsules tend to taste better as they’re made of Gelatin (animal bones) and the medicine is inside it.
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