Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Investigation of Maillard reaction involvement in the steam processing of Panax Notoginseng root

Jiang-Hua Li¹, Yu-Jie Liu¹, Yong-Liang Huang² , Zhi-Jie Yu¹, Mei-Bian Hu¹, Rui-Zhen Huang², Chun-Jie Wu¹

¹College of Pharmacy, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 611137; ²The Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610075, PR China.

For correspondence:- Yong-Liang Huang Email: d10000@126.com Tel:+862861801001

Accepted: 14 January 2018 Published: 28 February 2018

Citation: Li J, Liu Y, Huang Y, Yu Z, Hu M, Huang R, et al. Investigation of Maillard reaction involvement in the steam processing of Panax Notoginseng root. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(2):299-305 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i2.15

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the possible mechanism of Maillard reaction (MR) involvement in the steam processing of Panax notoginseng (PN) root.

Methods: PN root was soaked in water for 24 h and then steamed at 100 °C using an autoclave for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 h, respectively. Several indicators associated with MR during steam processing were measured. The pH and absorbance at 420 nm (A420) of samples were measured using a pH meter and an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer, respectively. The contents of 5-hydroxy-methyl-furfural (5-HMF) and sugars were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) while amino acids were evaluated using an automatic amino acid analyzer.

Results: During PN root steam processing (0 - 6 h), pH value gradually decreased from 6.35 ± 0.02 to 5.88 ± 0.03 while A420 value gradually increased from 0.23 ± 0.01 to 0.44 ± 0.02. The levels of reducing sugars (maltose and glucose) and amino acids (aspartic acid, glutamate, cysteine, lysine and arginine) in PN root decreased after steaming for 6 h. However, the content of 5-HMF in PN root increased with increase in steaming time.

Conclusion: The results indicate that MR occurs during steam processing of PN root, and the reaction mechanism might be closely related to the reaction between the reducing sugars and amino acids

Keywords: Panax notoginseng, Steaming, Reducing sugars, Amino acids, Maillard reaction