Identification of the Taste Enhancer Alapyridaine in Beef Broth and Evaluation of Its Sensory Impact by Taste Reconstitution Experiments

An essential compound imparting the sweet taste to beef broth was investigated. Taste activity-guided fractionation of beef broth by ultrafiltration, gel permeation chromatography, and HPLC in combination with the recently developed comparative taste dilution analysis enabled the localization of a fraction possessing sweetness-enhancing activity upon degustation. Comparison of the chromatographic, spectroscopic, and sensory data with those of the synthetic reference compound led to the identification of the sweetness-enhancing N-(1-carboxyethyl)-6-(hydroxymethyl)pyridinium-3-ol inner salt, named alapyridaine, which was recently isolated from heated aqueous solutions of hexoses and L-alanine. After quantification of alapyridaine in beef broth, sensory analysis of synthetic beef taste recombinates spiked with synthetic alapyridaine in its "natural" concentration of 419 μg/L and comparison to the taste quality of a tastant recombinate lacking the alapyridaine revealed a significant increase in sweetness and umami character only when the alapyridaine was present in the recombinate. These data demonstrate for the first time that, in "natural" concentrations, the alapyridaine exhibited a pronounced effect on the overall taste quality of beef broth, in particular, on the sweet and umami character.