Extraction and analysis of free amino acids and 5'-nucleotides, the key contributors to the umami taste of seaweed

Tanja C W Moerdijk-Poortvliet; Dylan L C de Jong; Roy Fremouw; Sandra de Reu; Jose M de Winter; Klaas Timmermans; Geert Mol; Norbert Reuter; Goverdina C H Derksen

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131352

Extraction and analysis of free amino acids and 5'-nucleotides, the key contributors to the umami taste of seaweed

Food Chem. 2022 Feb 15:370:131352. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131352. Epub 2021 Oct 7.

Authors

Tanja C W Moerdijk-Poortvliet¹, Dylan L C de Jong², Roy Fremouw², Sandra de Reu², Jose M de Winter², Klaas Timmermans³, Geert Mol², Norbert Reuter⁴, Goverdina C H Derksen⁵

Affiliations

¹ HZ University of Applied Sciences, Chemistry Department, Research Group Marine Biobased Specialties, P.O. Box 364, 4380 AJ Vlissingen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: tanja.moerdijk@hz.nl.
² HZ University of Applied Sciences, Chemistry Department, Research Group Marine Biobased Specialties, P.O. Box 364, 4380 AJ Vlissingen, the Netherlands.
³ NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department Estuarine and Delta Systems, P.O. Box 140, 4400 AC Yerseke, the Netherlands.
⁴ Agilent Technologies, P.O. Box 8033, 4330 EA Middelburg, the Netherlands.
⁵ HZ University of Applied Sciences, Chemistry Department, Research Group Marine Biobased Specialties, P.O. Box 364, 4380 AJ Vlissingen, the Netherlands; NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department Estuarine and Delta Systems, P.O. Box 140, 4400 AC Yerseke, the Netherlands.

PMID: 34788963
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131352

Abstract

Assessing the umami taste of seaweed on a chemical level can inform the use and selection of seaweed in European cuisine. Accordingly, we developed a method for the simultaneous extraction, separate clean-up and analysis of 21 free amino acids and 10 free nucleotides by reversed phase and mixed-mode HPLC respectively. Of multiple mouth emulating solvents, extracting in Milli-Q at 35 °C was found most suitable. This method showed good linearity (R² > 0.9996), resolution (R_s ≥ 1.5) and picomole detection limits, and was successfully applied to determine the Equivalent Umami Concentration (EUC) and Taste Activity Values (TAV) of seven Dutch seaweed species. Phaeophyceae showed the highest EUC, followed by Chlorophyceae and Rhodophyceae (≈ 9.5, 3.7 and 1.1 g/100 g respectively). Glutamic acid always exceeded the TAV, while other umami compounds were species specific. Our method can accurately predict umami intensity and therefore contributes towards species selection for the European palette.

Keywords: Equivalent umami concentration; Food acceptance; Macroalgae; Mouth emulating extraction; Taste profiling.

MeSH terms

Amino Acids
Glutamic Acid
Nucleotides*
Seaweed*
Taste

Substances

Amino Acids
Nucleotides
Glutamic Acid