Identifying the structures and taste characteristics of two novel Maillard reaction products in tea.

Huajie Wang, Yijun Yang, Lin Chen, Anan Xu, Yuefei Wang, Ping Xu, Zhonghua Liu

Food chemistry 2024 Jan 15

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Maillard reaction products (MRPs) produced during thermal processing of tea are intimately related to its flavor. Our recent work revealed that both levels of l-theanine and d-galacturonic acid in tea leaves decreased dramatically during drying, whereas the specific MRPs from l-theanine and d-galacturonic acid remain elusive. Here, the MRPs formed from l-theanine and d-galacturonic acid were investigated and their taste characteristics and the involved mechanisms were explored. Two novel MRPs from l-theanine and d-galacturonic acid were identified as 1-(1-carboxy-4-(ethylamino)-4-oxobutyl)-3-hydroxypyridin-1-ium (MRP 1) and 2-(2-formyl-1H-pyrrole-1-yl) theanine (MRP 2). MRP 1 and MRP 2 accumulated in dark tea and black tea and were associated with sour (threshold, 0.25 mg/mL) and astringent tastes and an umami taste (threshold, 0.18 mg/mL), respectively. Molecular docking revealed that the taste characteristics of MRPs may be due to strong binding to umami taste receptor proteins (CASR, T1R1/T1R3) and the sour taste protein OTOP1 via hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Huajie Wang, Yijun Yang, Lin Chen, Anan Xu, Yuefei Wang, Ping Xu, Zhonghua Liu. Identifying the structures and taste characteristics of two novel Maillard reaction products in tea. Food chemistry. 2024 Jan 15;431:137125