title: Baking, ageing, diabetes: a short history of the Maillard reaction.
abstract: The reaction of reducing carbohydrates with amino compounds described in 1912 by Louis-Camille Maillard is responsible for the aroma, taste, and appearance of thermally processed food. The discovery that non-enzymatic conversions also occur in organisms led to intensive investigation of the pathophysiological significance of the Maillard reaction in diabetes and ageing processes. Dietary Maillard products are discussed as "glycotoxins" and thus as a nutritional risk, but also increasingly with regard to positive effects in the human body. In this Review we give an overview of the most important discoveries in Maillard research since it was first described and show that the complex reaction, even after over one hundred years, has lost none of its interdisciplinary actuality.
authors.affiliation: Chair of Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden, D-01062 Dresden (Germany) http://www.chm.tu-dresden.de/lc1.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hellwig
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Henle
mesh_terms: D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005502:Food / Q000633:toxicity; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D006595:Hexosamines / Q000737:chemistry; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D015416:Maillard Reaction; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D006595:Hexosamines; D011108:Polymers; C011908:melanoidin polymers
keywords: Maillard reaction; diabetes; food; glycation; protein modifications