Antibacterial Properties of Melanoidins Produced from Various Combinations of Maillard Reaction against Pathogenic Bacteria.

Novel melanoidins are produced by the Maillard reaction. Here, melanoidins with high antibacterial activity were tested by examining various combinations of reducing sugars and amino acids as reaction substrates. Twenty-two types of melanoidins were examined by combining two reducing sugars (glucose and xylose) and eleven l-isomers of amino acids (alanine, arginine, glutamine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine) to confirm the effects of these melanoidins on the growth of Listeria monocytogenes at 25°C. The melanoidins produced from the combination of d-xylose with either l-phenylalanine (Xyl-Phe) or l-proline (Xyl-Pro), for which absorbance at 420 nm was 3.5 ± 0.2, completely inhibited the growth of L. monocytogenes at 25°C for 48 h. Both of the melanoidins exhibited growth inhibition of L. monocytogenes which was equivalent to the effect of nisin (350 IU/mL). The antimicrobial spectrum of both melanoidins was also investigated for 10 different species of bacteria, including both Gram-positive and Gram-negative species. While Xyl-Phe-based melanoidin successfully inhibited the growth of Bacillus cereus and Brevibacillus brevis, Xyl-Pro-based melanoidin inhibited the growth of Salmonella enterica Typhimurium. However, no clear trend in the antimicrobial spectrum of the melanoidins against different bacterial species was observed. The findings in the present study suggest that melanoidins generated from xylose with phenylalanine and/or proline could be used as potential novel alternative food preservatives derived from food ingredients to control pathogenic bacteria.