An unknown ninhydrin positive compound, X, was detected in acid hydrolysates of heated skim milk samples by amino acid analysis, eluting between phenylalanine and pyridosine in the chromatogram. The formation of X correlated with heating time and temperature. preparative ion-exchange chromatography enabled the isolation of X and a second minor compound from a milk protein hydrolysate and from a model mixture consisting of N alpha-acetylhistidine and methyl-2-acetamidoacrylate (acetyldehydroalaninemethylester), in a relative abundance of 8 to 1. By 1H-NMR spectroscopy, the two compounds could be identified as the N tau- and N pi-isomers of N-(2'-amino-2'-carboxy-ethyl)-L-histidine (histidinoalanine), a cross-link amino acid that has not been described in food proteins up to now. In a number of foods containing milk protein, the N tau-histidinoalanine contents were between 50 and 1800 mg/kg protein, which is in a concentration range comparable to the potential nephrotoxic cross-link lysinoalanine, which was determined simultaneously.
After heating N alpha-acetyllysine and glucose for 4 h at 90 degrees C in the dry state and subsequent acid hydrolysis with 7.8 N HCl, preparative fractionation of the dihydrochlorides of furosine and pyridosine was achieved by cation-exchange chromatography. The lysine derivatives could be prepared with high yield and sufficient purity for the use as reference material.
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