The use of flavour enhancers in the food industry could be beneficial for several reasons: they ensure homogeneity of the final products, reduce costs for condiments and favor consumer's acceptance. On the other hand, the consumer's attention for convenient, minimally-processed, nutritious, healthy, yet tasty food prompts the food industry to an accurate choice of the ingredients. In this scenario, naturally occurring kokumi substances could play an important role. Kokumi is a japanese term that refers to mouthfulness, thickness and long-lasting savory sensations. Kokumi substances are represented mainly by gamma-glutamyl derivatives of amino acids. They are nearly tasteless for themselves, but they elicit a strong taste sensation, expecially in conjunction with protein-rich food [Dunkel 2007]. In vegetables of the genus Allium, kokumi substances were identified in gamma-glutamyl derivatives of S-alkyl and S-alkenyl cysteines and their S-oxides [Ueda 1990].There is a number of difficulties connected with the supplying of these materials. Isolation from natural sources is laborious, and their content in vegetables varies with cultivation and storage. In addition, upon crushing the plant, they are enzymatically degraded. The chemical synthesis is not economical, due to the need of protection/deprotection steps. We exploited recently the enzymatic synthesis at the laboratory scale of the gamma -glutamyl derivatives of S-allyl cysteine, S-methyl cysteine and methionine, catalyzed by a commercially available mammalian GGT [Speranza 2012]. In this communication we report that such flavour enhancers can be obtained as well by using a purified, home-made bacterial GGT from Bacillus subtilis, a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) organism, suited to food processing.

γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase-catalyzed enzymatic synthesis of flavour enhancers from Allium sp.

CALVIO, CINZIA;
2012-01-01

Abstract

The use of flavour enhancers in the food industry could be beneficial for several reasons: they ensure homogeneity of the final products, reduce costs for condiments and favor consumer's acceptance. On the other hand, the consumer's attention for convenient, minimally-processed, nutritious, healthy, yet tasty food prompts the food industry to an accurate choice of the ingredients. In this scenario, naturally occurring kokumi substances could play an important role. Kokumi is a japanese term that refers to mouthfulness, thickness and long-lasting savory sensations. Kokumi substances are represented mainly by gamma-glutamyl derivatives of amino acids. They are nearly tasteless for themselves, but they elicit a strong taste sensation, expecially in conjunction with protein-rich food [Dunkel 2007]. In vegetables of the genus Allium, kokumi substances were identified in gamma-glutamyl derivatives of S-alkyl and S-alkenyl cysteines and their S-oxides [Ueda 1990].There is a number of difficulties connected with the supplying of these materials. Isolation from natural sources is laborious, and their content in vegetables varies with cultivation and storage. In addition, upon crushing the plant, they are enzymatically degraded. The chemical synthesis is not economical, due to the need of protection/deprotection steps. We exploited recently the enzymatic synthesis at the laboratory scale of the gamma -glutamyl derivatives of S-allyl cysteine, S-methyl cysteine and methionine, catalyzed by a commercially available mammalian GGT [Speranza 2012]. In this communication we report that such flavour enhancers can be obtained as well by using a purified, home-made bacterial GGT from Bacillus subtilis, a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) organism, suited to food processing.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11571/580077
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