Effect of phospholipid on the formation of volatile heterocyclic compounds in heated aqueous solutions of amino acids and ribose

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Abstract
The concentrations of 68 heterocyclic compounds produced by heating a series of amino acid—ribose and lecithin—amino acid—ribose reaction mixtures at 140°Cfor 1 h were measured, after headspace collection on Tenax GC, by capillary gas chromatography—mass spectrometry. The amino acids studied were glycine, lysine and cysteine, and the classes of heterocyclic compounds quantified were pyrazines (14), pyridines (7), furans (14), thiophenes (26) and thiazoles (7). The studies showed that the addition of lecithin to the simple Maillard reaction mixtures led to a reduction in the concentrations of many of the heterocyclic compounds formed in these reactions. These findings support an earlier observation that phospholipids in foodstuffs, such as meat products, could exert a quenching effect on the amount of heterocyclic compounds formed in Maillard reactions during the cooking of food. A number of volatile compounds formed by the reaction of lipid degradation products with Maillard reaction intermediates were also identified.