An Investigation of the Complexity of Maillard Reaction Product Profiles from the Thermal Reaction of Amino Acids with Sucrose Using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Thermal treatment of food changes its chemical composition drastically with the formation of “so-called” Maillard reaction products, being responsible for the sensory properties of food, along with detrimental and beneficial health effects. In this contribution, we will describe the reactivity of several amino acids, including arginine, lysine, aspartic acid, tyrosine, serine and cysteine, with carbohydrates. The analytical strategy employed involves high and ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry followed by chemometric-type data analysis. The different reactivity of amino acids towards carbohydrates has been observed with cysteine and serine, resulting in complex MS spectra with thousands of detectable reaction products. Several compounds have been tentatively identified, including caramelization reaction products, adducts of amino acids with carbohydrates, their dehydration and hydration products, disproportionation products and aromatic compounds based on molecular formula considerations.

Effect of ultrasound pretreatment and Maillard reaction on structure and antioxidant properties of ultrafiltrated smooth-hound viscera proteins-sucrose conjugates

“…The high reactivity of Lys was also observed in the Lys/S reference system, where the total content of available Lys has been decreased by 57.15, 69.26, and 84.69% after 30, 60, and 90 min of heat processing, respectively. In the same context, Golon, Kropf, Vockenroth and Kuhnert (2014) have shown that, in the presence of sucrose and after heating, lysine and tyrosine yielded in simple spectra of MRPs, followed by arginine and aspartic acid, whereas cysteine and serine produced the highest number of compounds.…”

Chlorogenic acid oxidation-induced greening of sunflower butter cookies as a function of different sweeteners and storage conditions

“…S3,. The m/z 163, 487 and 738 fragments in cookies made with honey were possibly Maillard reaction products (Golon, Kropf, Vockenroth, & Kuhnert, 2014;Zhang, Ames, Smith, Baynes, & Metz, 2009). The greater Maillard reaction in cookies made with honey was attributed to the higher reducing sugar in honey compared to the greening reaction products found in cookies made with maple syrup due to maple syrup's higher initial moisture and pH (Yabuta, et al, 2001).…”

Evolution of Complex Maillard Chemical Reactions, Resolved in Time

“…Golon et al . reported a considerably higher number of resolved analytes in heated sucrose-amino acid mixtures analyzed by FT-ICR-MS compared to TOF-MS 11 . Despite the growing number of non-targeted approaches, the majority of MRPs, produced even when only one sugar is heated together with a single amino acid, still remain unknown.…”