Sensory attributes and antioxidant capacity of Maillard reaction products derived from xylose, cysteine and sunflower protein hydrolysate model system

Sensory attributes and antioxidant capacity of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) from sunflower protein hydrolysate, xylose and l-cysteine model system (SFPC) were evaluated and compared to soybean MRPs (SPC). The model systems were heated at 120 °C for 2.0 h. Findings showed that SFPC exhibited stronger (p < 0.001) antioxidant effect. The reducing power and DPPH radical scavenging activity were higher compared to SPC (0.689 vs. 0.667 at 3 mg/mL and 95.06% vs.90.73% at 1 mg/mL, respectively). Furthermore, the sensory attributes showed that SFPC had greater mouthfulness and continuity taste compared to SPC due to the higher content in Maillard peptide between 1 and 5 kDa (18.05% vs. 16.01%), and also an acceptable meat-like flavor from sulfur substituted furan and good overall acceptability. Therefore, sunflower MRPs could potentially be used to produce flavor enhancers with high antioxidant activity as an alternative to soybean MRPs.