# Why is medicine (underneath the coating) always so terribly bitter? Are there sweet medicines? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2014, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086 "2014-12-24T06:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/1 "2014-12-24T06:57:00Z")
I couldn’t get my pill down the hatch for some reason today and the water quickly wore off the outside coating. I was quickly reminded of something I hadn’t thought of in forever - how BITTER and HORRIBLE medicine tastes. Is there a particular reason that these compounds taste so bad compared to the other compounds the occur in the world - like sugar, salt, etc. I mean they all come down to being molecules and whatnot. Why makes the medicine taste so shitty? Are there ones that in the natural form (WITHOUT coating or artificial flavoring) taste anything other than bitter? In all the combinations of chemicals in the world, there has to be some random aspirin that tastes sweet. Right? Enlighten me here guys ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/2 "2014-12-24T09:33:35Z")
Sweet? Some children may consume it, thinking it’s candy. Think of the massive lawsuits… ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/3 "2014-12-24T09:48:33Z")
A lot of medicines in large enough doses are essentially poison (warfarin, for example, in large quantities is a common rat poison). The bitter taste is nature’s warning label. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/4 "2014-12-24T09:59:03Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > A lot of medicines in large enough doses are essentially poison (warfarin, for example, in large quantities is a common rat poison). The bitter taste is nature’s warning label. Nature’s? Or the drug manufacturer’s? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/5 "2014-12-24T10:05:31Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Nature’s? Or the drug manufacturer’s? In some cases it really is nature, morphine for example is theorized to have evolved because the bitter taste discourages grazing animals from eating the poppy pods. The fact it gets people high and has medical value is a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/6 "2014-12-24T10:23:27Z")
Some medicine is made to deliberately taste badly, because the user perceives bad-tasting medicine to be more effective. It’s one of the well documented placebo effects. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/7 "2014-12-24T10:45:05Z")
Chewable aspirin has orange or cherry flavoring added to it. I’m on a low-dose aspiring regimen and I prefer the chewable kind. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/8 "2014-12-24T11:00:52Z")
Some of the lead oxides are sweet – it’s a known contributor to lead poisoning. Not medicine, but pharmo-active. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/9 "2014-12-24T11:16:02Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Some medicine is made to deliberately taste badly, because the user perceives bad-tasting medicine to be more effective. It’s one of the well documented placebo effects. I absolutely hate this having a small kid who WILL NOT take meds even if two parents restrain him and force it down his throat. He was RXed children’s liquid claritin, it tasted HORRID even to me. Yet I take claritin in pill form and they are tiny and even chewed up have no taste at all, so we ended up crushing a half a pill to match the dose in the syrup and putting it in his cereal. The day we discovered enteric coated children’s acetaminophen was a revelation, you can crush the tablets to powder and they have a faint taste of strawberry while the children’s liquid tastes bitter. No more riding out fevers! ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/10 "2014-12-24T12:01:16Z")
I remember growing up it seemed like all medicines were alcohol based or something else but they all tasted horrible. It turned me off to taking any and all meds. Now though kids medicines seem to always taste good so I think more people are quicker to pop a pill as adults. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/11 "2014-12-24T12:33:50Z")
Going back in time a century or two, many medicines are derived from chemicals found in plants. The opiates are the classic example. It turns out that many - perhaps most - of medically useful plant chemicals are in a group called alkaloids. They are basic rather than acidic. Alkaloids taste bitter and nasty and are speculated to have evolved to discourage being eaten by herbivores. Now, I don’t know enough to say whether or not there’s a meaningful connection between bad-tasting plant alkaloids and bad-tasting modern medicine, particularly medicines that aren’t derived from these plant chemicals. But that’s the historical perspective. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/12 "2014-12-24T13:59:13Z")
My Lisinopril (ACE inhibitor) is in a tiny, uncoated tablet, and it has a faintly sweet taste. I suspect it’s the chemical itself, but it may be mixed with a sweetener. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/13 "2014-12-24T15:41:24Z")
People mentioned the evolution of plants (alkaloïds), but didn’t _we_ evolve to find pleasant to taste things that are nutritious, which is unlikely to be the case of medicines or whatever they’re derived from? Why would we find sweet something that doesn’t actually contain sugar? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/14 "2014-12-24T16:17:07Z")
Most things that occur in nature don’t taste very good. Go out and pick a dozen random weeds, and see how many taste good. Of course, there are a few medicinal products that would taste palatable, if not good, but there is a high probability that the ones you take are not among them, so the coating (which would be there anyway to hold the measured dosage together) has a secondary use of shielding your mouth from the objectionable flavor. Plants, in general, have evolved a taste that discourages animals from eating them prematurely, and then some have evolved a taste that does encourage animals to eat the seeds of the mature plants, in order to distribute those seeds. Agricultural science is dedicated to reversing nature, and persuading plants to produce parts that a mammal does find palatable, which is not in the best interests of the wild plant, but they are grown then in a restricted environment where they are not allowed to revert back to natural defenses. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/15 "2014-12-24T16:22:52Z")
QUOTE=Oedipus;18001551]In all the combinations of chemicals in the world, there has to be some random aspirin that tastes sweet. Right? Enlighten me here guys [/QUOTE] Assuming that by asprin, you mean acetylsacyclilc acid, aspirin tastes horrible. So horrible that they add it to industrial alcohol in Europe to prevent people from drinking it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/16 "2014-12-24T16:28:20Z")
Numerous scientific studies have proven that medicines that taste bad are more effective. That is for small values of ‘numerous’, ‘scientific’, and ‘studies’ of course. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/17 "2014-12-24T23:02:37Z")
Except for enteric coatings, why would they coat something that actually tastes good? Respectively, your question seems odd to me. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/18 "2014-12-24T23:08:29Z")
If medicine wasn’t bad-tasting, you wouldn’t have Mary Poppins singing. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/19 "2014-12-25T00:01:37Z")
chemicals have lots of tastes. some of the parts of molecules that are the medicine might give it the taste. even if a part of the molecule isn’t needed for its medicinal function it might be part of its synthesis function (it was needed to make the drug using chemical reactions). ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086/20 "2014-12-25T00:55:54Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > Except for enteric coatings, why would they coat something that actually tastes good? Respectively, your question seems odd to me. Pills can be coated to reduce stomach irritation, or as part of a time release mechanism. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-medicine-underneath-the-coating-always-so-terribly-bitter-are-there-sweet-medicines/708086.md?page=2)