Simultaneous inhibition of heterocyclic aromatic amines, advanced glycation end products, acrylamide, and hydroxymethylfurfural in Chinese braised beef by characteristic spices during braising and in vitro digestion

Xiurong Zheng; Iftikhar Hussain Badar; Feibiao Huang; Rongxin Wen; Lin Mei; Yingying Hu; Lang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.145291

Simultaneous inhibition of heterocyclic aromatic amines, advanced glycation end products, acrylamide, and hydroxymethylfurfural in Chinese braised beef by characteristic spices during braising and in vitro digestion

Food Chem. 2025 Jun 24:491:145291. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.145291. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xiurong Zheng¹, Iftikhar Hussain Badar², Feibiao Huang¹, Rongxin Wen³, Lin Mei¹, Yingying Hu⁴, Lang Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Jianghuai Agricultural Product Fine Processing and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Anhui Engineering Research Center for High Value Utilization of Characteristic Agricultural Products, School of Food and Nutrition, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China.
² Department of Meat Science and Technology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
³ School of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai, Shandong 264005, China.
⁴ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230009, China. Electronic address: huyying0925@126.com.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Jianghuai Agricultural Product Fine Processing and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Anhui Engineering Research Center for High Value Utilization of Characteristic Agricultural Products, School of Food and Nutrition, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China. Electronic address: zlang0706@163.com.

PMID: 40577912
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.145291

Abstract

This research examined how various spices inhibit formation and digestion of free and bound heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), advanced glycation end products (AGEs), acrylamide (AA), and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in Chinese braised beef. Lemongrass reduced total levels of free and bound HAAs, AGEs, HMF and AA in Chinese braised beef, model system, and in vitro digestion (P < 0.05), and the inhibition rates were 67.06 %, 76.26 %, and 57.41 %, respectively. The lemongrass inhibited the formation of free Norharman and Harman through trapping 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid and 1-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid by its active component kaempferol. Molecular docking revealed that kaempferol inhibited bound HAAs, AGEs, AAs, and HMF formation through competing myosin binding site of SER A:1751 with glucose, and inhibited release of these hazardous compounds during in vitro digestion through forming a stable complex with trypsin. This research could help to use natural additives to mitigate formation of hazardous compounds thus developing healthier meat products.

Keywords: Acrylamide; Advanced glycation end products; Chinese braised beef; Heterocyclic aromatic amines; Hydroxymethylfurfural; Molecular docking; Spices.