Food chemistry: Acrylamide from Maillard reaction products
The discovery of the adventitious formation of the potential cancer-causing agent acrylamide in a variety of foods during cooking has raised much concern, but the chemical mechanism(s) governing its production are unclear. Here we show that acrylamide can be released by the thermal treatment of certain amino acids (asparagine, for example), particularly in combination with reducing sugars, and of early Maillard reaction products (N-glycosides). Our findings indicate that the Maillard-driven generation of flavour and colour in thermally processed foods can — under particular conditions — be linked to the formation of acrylamide.
Metallkomplexe mit biologisch wichtigen Liganden, L [1] Palladium(II)-, Platin(II)- und Kupfer(II)-Komplexe von α-Aminosäure-N-Glykosiden und von Fructose-Aminosäuren (Amadori-Verbindungen) / Metal Complexes of Biologically Important Ligands, L [1] Palladium(II), Platinum(II) and Copper(II) Complexe
Various N-glycosides derived from glucose and α-amino acids and the isomeric Amadori compounds form bis(chelate) complexes of copper(II), palladium (II) and platinum (II). The IR spectra indicate that the ligands are coordinated through the amino group and a carboxylate oxygen atom.
Recalculation of Mass Defects
THE well-known mass defect curve of the old nuclear scheme calculated with regard to α-particles and protons presented a difficulty with its minimum of binding energy for tin and an increasing portion between tin and lead. On the other hand, the mass defect values against protons give a rather smoothly decreasing curve.1 As has already been pointed out,2 the number of α-particles must be considerably reduced from the point of view of the new scheme, which does not admit any electrons in nuclei, but only neutrons and protons (presumably joined as α-particles). The curve of mass defect against protons and neutrons (perhaps with a single ‘central’ α-particle) is very similar to the old curve against protons, but decreases less rapidly. Clearly the new mass defect values relatively to α-particles, neutrons and protons must lie somewhere between the old values computed relative to protons and α-particles respectively (because the number of α-particles is decreased). We may emphasise that this new mass defect curve shows no increasing portion between tin and lead. For illustration we give two typical values: Old: 50Sn124 = 31α + 12&#38;epsiv;; mass defect = 0.158 (in mass units); 82Pb208 = 52α + 22&#38;epsiv;; mass defect = 0.035. New: 50Sn124= 25α + 24ω (ω = neutron); mass defect = 0.304; 82Pb208 = 41α + 44ω; mass defect = 0.366.