Characteristics and antioxidant activity of ultrafiltrated Maillard reaction products from a casein–glucose model system

Maillard reaction products (MRPs) were prepared from casein–glucose by refluxing for 130 min at 102 °C and initial pH 12.0 without pH control to investigate the characteristics of casein–glucose Maillard reaction and the antioxidant activity difference among different fractions of MRPs. Browning and intermediate products increased, however, the pH of the system decreased with increase in the heating time. Free amino group content decreased 78% during first 10 min and did not change nearly thereafter. Amino acid analysis indicated that lysine and arginine decreased significantly, and casein was partially hydrolysed to peptides or free amino acid. High molecular weight compounds were dominant in the MRPs, determined by high performance gel-filtration chromatography. After ultrafiltration, antioxidant activity of each MRPs fraction was investigated by DPPH radical-scavenging activity, reducing power, Fe2+ chelating activity and lecithin oxidation assay. MRPs of different molecular weight exhibited distinctly different antioxidant activities.