Ling Yating, Zhang Linlin, Peng Bangzhu, Zhang Zhuo
College of Food Science & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
Key Laboratory of Forest Food Resources Utilization of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin 150040, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Jun 19;26(12):5914. doi: 10.3390/ijms26125914.
This study investigated the effects of taxifolin (Tax), quercetin (Que), (+)-catechin (Cat) and luteolin (Lute) on the advanced Maillard reaction stage in the methylglyoxal-lysine (MGO-Lys) system. Since the four flavonoids share identical - and -ring structures, the inhibitory effects and molecular mechanisms of flavonoids with different -ring structures on -(carboxyethyl)lysine (CEL) formation were revealed. The results demonstrated that Cat exhibited the best inhibitory effect on CEL with an inhibition rate of 53.78%, while Lute showed the lowest inhibition rate of 3.97%. The flavonoids (i.e., Tax, Que, Cat and Lute) inhibited the formation of non-fluorescent CEL, where hydroxylation at C on the -ring favored the enhancement of the inhibitory effect of the flavonoids on CEL, while the C-C double bond and the carbonyl group at the C position reduced their inhibitory ability. The alkaline environment favored the enhancement of the inhibition of CEL by Tax, Que, Cat and Lute. Notably, Tax, Que, Cat and Lute can inhibit CEL formation by competitively capturing MGO to form mono- or di-adducts and reducing lysine consumption. This study provides innovative strategies and a theoretical foundation for developing effective CEL inhibitors in food thermal processing.
本研究考察了紫杉叶素（Tax）、槲皮素（Que）、（+）-儿茶素（Cat）和木犀草素（Lute）对甲基乙二醛-赖氨酸（MGO-Lys）体系中晚期美拉德反应阶段的影响。由于这四种黄酮类化合物具有相同的A环和B环结构，因此揭示了具有不同A环结构的黄酮类化合物对Nε-（羧乙基）赖氨酸（CEL）形成的抑制作用及其分子机制。结果表明，Cat对CEL的抑制效果最佳，抑制率为53.78%，而Lute的抑制率最低，为3.97%。黄酮类化合物（即Tax、Que、Cat和Lute）抑制了非荧光性CEL的形成，其中B环上C-3位的羟基化有利于增强黄酮类化合物对CEL的抑制作用，而C-2位的碳碳双键和羰基则降低了它们的抑制能力。碱性环境有利于增强Tax、Que、Cat和Lute对CEL的抑制作用。值得注意的是，Tax、Que、Cat和Lute可通过竞争性捕获MGO形成单加合物或多加合物并减少赖氨酸消耗来抑制CEL的形成。本研究为开发食品热加工中有效的CEL抑制剂提供了创新策略和理论基础。
