A kinetic model for the glucose-fructose-glycine browning reaction

The browning of glucose-fructose-glycine mixtures involves parallel glucose-glycine and fructose-glycine reactions, which share a common intermediate, the immediate precursor of melanoidins in the kinetic model. At pH 5.5, 55 degrees C glucose is converted into this intermediate in a two step process where k(1) = (7.8 +/- 1.1) x 10(-)(4) mol L(-)(1) h(-)(1) and k(2) = (1.84 +/- 0.31) x 10(-)(3) h(-)(1) according to established kinetics, whereas fructose is converted into this intermediate in a single step where k(4) = 5.32 x 10(-)(5)()()mol L(-)(1) h(-)(1). The intermediate is converted to melanoidins in a single rate limiting process where k(mix) = 0.0177 h(-)(1) and the molar extinction coefficient (based on the concentration of sugar converted) of the melanoidins so formed is 1073 +/- 4 mol(-)(1) L cm(-)(1). Whereas the value of k(mix) is the same when the individual sugars undergo browning, the value of the molar extinction coefficient is similar to that for melanoidins from the glucose-glycine reaction (955 +/- 45 mol(-)(1) L cm(-)(1)) but it is approximately double the value for melanoidins from the fructose-glycine reaction (478 +/- 18 mol(-)(1) L cm(-)(1)). This is the reason that the effects of glucose and fructose on the rate of browning are synergistic.