Contents lists available at ScienceDirect LWT - Food Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lwt Antimicrobial, antioxidant and sensory properties of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) derived from sunfower, soybean and corn meal hydrolysates I. Habinshuti, X. Chen, J. Yu, O. Mukeshimana, E. Duhoranimana, E. Karangwa, B. Muhoza, M. Zhang, S. Xia, X. Zhang ∗ State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Maillard reaction products Sunfower meal Soybean meal Corn meal Antioxidant properties Antimicrobial properties ABSTRACT Nowadays, proteins from diferent plant materials are used to produce Maillard reaction products (MRPs). In this study, antimicrobial, antioxidant and sensory properties of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) derived from three plant materials namely sunfower (SF), soybean (SB) and corn (CN) meals were investigated. These MRPs were prepared by mixing each protein hydrolysate (60 g), with xylose (0.595 g) and cysteine (0.372 g) at pH of 7.4, and then heated at 120 °C for 2 h. Results revealed that only SF-MRPs show an antimicrobial efect against tested strains (Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli). SF-MRPs showed greater antioxidant activity followed by SB- MRPs and CN-MRPs. Additionally, CN-MRPs showed higher umami, continuity and mouthfulness sensory at- tributes compared to SF-MRPs and SB-MRPs. It is therefore deduced that SF-MRPs could be used as potential food ingredients in food products due to their relatively high antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. On the other hand, SF-MRPs could potentially be used as functional food, which could be of great potential for food industries. 1. Introduction The non-enzymatic reaction between reducing sugar and amino acid, peptide or protein is known as “Maillard reaction” (Rios-Rios et al., 2018). Aromatic compounds, dark-brown polymeric compounds and ultra-violet absorbing intermediates are considered as Maillard reaction products (MRPs) which have gained attention over the past decade due to their signifcant and valuable antioxidant properties in food systems (Liu et al., 2012). Due to the role played by MRPs in the food industry, such as their favor-enhancing properties, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties (Taş & Gökmen, 2016; Wu et al., 2014), diferent studies have been conducted on MRPs and Maillard reaction intermediates (Jiang et al., 2018). Diferent protein sources have been explored; plant materials such as sunfower, soybean, corn, cowpeas, cabbages etc. have been exploited as protein sources (Li, Zhu, Zhou, & Peng, 2012; Lin, Wang, Yang, Guo, & Wang, 2016) and animal proteins such as milk, meat, etc. (Oh, Park, Lee, Kim & Kim, 2015). Nowadays research is focusing mostly on plant protein sources. Remarkably, these proteins have been reported to have natural anti- oxidant properties which are preferable for their less toxicity compared to synthetic ones (Zhou et al., 2015; Sihui Liang, 2017). Hence, they have gained attraction over few past decades as potential ingredients into formulations due to their anti-carcinogenic and anti-ageing prop- erties (Karamać, Kosińska, Estrella, Hernández, & Dueñas, 2012; Qiu et al., 2018). Therefore, plant materials are potential sources of food ingredients and favourings through Maillard reaction. Additionally, enzymatic hydrolyzation has been used in order to improve the antioxidant properties of diferent plant proteins, which can break down proteins into peptides (Lin et al., 2016). Researchers have reported that MRPs possess some toxic compound like acrylamides (Capuano & Fogliano, 2011). Those compounds are claimed to have impact on development of some diseases such as; cancers (Beland et al., 2013) and infammatory diseases (Tessier & Birlouez-Aragon, 2012), when time and temperature are not well controlled. However, they also have antioxidant properties and good antimicrobial activity (Pablo & Monterob, 2012; Yu, Zhao, Liu, Zeng, & Hu, 2013), and they can ef- ciently inhibit the growth of a wide range of gram positive and gram negative bacteria (Hauser, Muller, Sauer, Augner, & Pischetsrieder, 2014). This is due to the melanoidins compounds formed in the late stages of the Maillard reaction (Sunds, Rauh, Sørensen, & Larsen, 2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2018.11.083 Received 25 July 2018; Received in revised form 21 November 2018; Accepted 26 November 2018 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: xmzhang@jiangnan.edu.cn (X. Zhang). LWT - Food Science and Technology 101 (2019) 694–702 Available online 01 December 2018 0023-6438/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T