Browning and pigmentation in food through the Maillard reaction
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MINI REVIEW
Browning and pigmentation in food through the Maillard reaction Masatsune Murata 1 Received: 18 August 2020 / Revised: 18 August 2020 / Accepted: 27 August 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The Maillard reaction was discovered in 1912 by Louis C. Maillard when he observed the browning phenomena with aroma formation in a heated solution containing a sugar and an amino acid. The Maillard reaction starts from the reactions between carbonyl groups of various sugars and amino groups of amino acids/ proteins, following the formation of intermediate compounds or poly-carbonyl compounds, which further react with each other and amino acids/proteins. Through various chemical reactions such as condensation, polymerization, degradation, cyclization etc., color and aroma are formed. The imparting of brown color is mainly attributed to melanoidins. However, the chemical structure of melanoidins remains unclear because melanoidins are complex and heterogeneous polymers. On the other hand, various kinds of low-molecular-weight pigments formed through the Maillard reaction have been isolated and their structures have been identified. Even though the contribution of each pigment is small, the recognition of color is cumulative. In some case, these pigments form brown polymers or significantly contribute to the total color of a model solution. These chemically clear information gives us a novel aspect for an overview of browning or pigmentation through the Maillard reaction. Keywords Maillard reaction . Melanoidin . Browning . Color . Pigment
Brief history of the Maillard reaction and food The Maillard reaction is one of the most important chemical reaction which occurs during food processing and storage, and significantly affects the quality of food. The name of this reaction is derived from a French chemist, Louis Camille Maillard (1878–1936). In 1912 he discovered by chance that a solution containing amino acids and sugars turned intensively brown during heating. At that time, he investigated the formation of peptide from amino acids in glycerol. Then he used glucose as a polyol compound instead of glycerol. Although the expected peptides were not formed, he observed that the reaction solution turned brown with the formation of aroma and carbon dioxide [1]. This reaction occurs ubiquitously because starting materials such as sugars and amino acids exist everywhere, meaning that Maillard reaction occurs in food as well as in body and soil. The significance of this reaction in food was first recognized by a researcher of brewing. Lintner described that malt aroma * Masatsune Murata [email protected] 1
Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Ochanomizu University, 2-1-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8610, Japan
is formed by the reaction from leucine [1]. The importance of Maillard’s discovery had been gradually recognized by other researchers and this browning phenomenon or the reaction between amino acids and sugars became to be called as the Maillard react
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