Abstract: A process for isolating and purifying taste bud receptor material for screening and evaluating tastants is described. The process includes surgically excising a plurality of circumvallate papillae, coring said papillae to remove the central mucous gland from each, followed by exposing the taste bud bearing epithelial portion thereof. The buds are preferably exposed by swelling in a hypotonic medium followed by subjecting said buds to about 900 psi in a nitrogen bomb. The swelled buds are then subjected to a gentle, selective homogenization to extrude taste bud receptor material therefrom without substantial destruction of surrounding epithelial tissue. The extruded material is then isolated by filtering and purified by subjecting the filtrate to differential centrifugation to isolate a receptor containing membrane enriched fraction.