Why does ear wax taste bitter? | Notes and Queries

Why does ear wax taste bitter?

Tim Albrecht, Chicago, USA

• Probably to stop you from eating any more of it.

  Daniel Owen, London, UK

• Dear friend, your question suggests that at some point of time in life you did the mischief of tasting earwax. Earwax medically termed ‘cerumen’ is a yellowish waxy substance secreted in the ear canal, of animals including human being, responsible for protecting the skin of ear canal. It also helps in cleaning and lubrication and protects ear to some extent from bacteria, fungi, insects, water, and dirt. But excessive presence of earwax in one’s ear canal blocks the passage of sound, which may result in hearing loss. Study reveals that everything discharged from human or animal body is unpleasant in taste unlike snot which every human being obviously tastes in childhood

  Biswanath Bhattacharjee, Bhadreshwar, Hooghly, West Bengal. India