High correlation of methylglyoxal with acrylamide formation in glucose/asparagine Maillard reaction model

Abstract

α-Dicarbonyl compounds were highly reactive intermediates formed in Maillard reaction (MR), and o-phenylenediamine (OPD) was widely used as a trapping agent for α-dicarbonyl compounds. Both aqueous glucose/asparagine (Glc/Asn) and glucose/asparagine/o-phenylenediamine (Glc/Asn/OPD) model systems were heated at 150 °C for up to 30 min. The α-dicarbonyl compounds formed in MR were identified by HPLC/MS in our particular model system, indicating that 3-deoxy-2-hexosulose, 2,3-butanedione and methylglyoxal (MG) were three main α-dicarbonyl compounds. In this work, MG was chosen as a representative of α-dicarbonyl compound in MR to investigate the influence on the formation of acrylamide (AA). The concentrations of AA, MG and Asn were detected during MR by HPLC method. The results indicated that the formation of AA increased with the heating time, and nearly 80% of AA formed through participation of α-dicarbonyl compounds. These results were consistent with the changes of amounts of MG. The amounts of formation and consumption of MG increased with heating time, and from 9 min of reaction, the consumed amounts of MG accounted for 73–88% on basis of total amounts of MG formed in MR, suggesting that most of MG take part in the next reaction steps. Meanwhile, the Asn concentration decreased with heating time in both models. The formation of AA and consumption of Asn were highly correlated with MG. Indeed, as MG concentration in MG/Asn model system decreased during heating at 150 °C, the concentration of AA significantly increased. The coefficient of correlation between consumed amounts of MG and the formed amounts of AA is 0.931, again demonstrating that MG does play a role in AA formation.