Characterization of initial reaction intermediates in heated model systems of glucose, glutathione, and aliphatic aldehydes

Abstract To understand the effect of lipid degradation on Maillard formation of meaty flavors, initial reaction intermediates in model systems of glucose–glutathione with hexanal, (E)-2-heptenal, or (E,E)-2,4-decadienal were identified by HPLC–MS and by NMR. Besides Amadori compounds, hemiacetals and thiazolidines via addition of sulfhydryl to carbonyl or to the conjugated olefinic bond were found. Concentrations of all intermediates increased with reaction time while degradation of the intermediates with a glutathione moiety helped formation of thiazolidines with cysteinylglycine. The unsaturated aldehydes (E)-2-heptenal and (E,E)-2,4-decadienal exhibited high reactivity against glucose for glutathione, yielding higher levels of intermediate compounds in glutathione than glucose. Heating prepared intermediates reversibly released the original aldehydes, which caused various compounds formed by retro-aldol, oxidation, etc. to react with H2S and NH3. Among them, formation pathways including 3-nonen-2-one, 2-hexanoylfuran, and six dialkylthiophenes (e.g., 2-ethyl-5-(1-methylbutyl)thiophene) were proposed for the first time.