Salty essence named as thermal processing essence, means special mixture caused by thermal processing reaction between amino acid and reducing sugar. Thereinto, amino acid might come from decomposition of protein and chemical composite product.

Reaction essence is a comprehensive result of various complex reactions includes Maillard and Strecker.

Presently, there are new trend on reaction essence research direction.

It shows in following aspects:

I. Utilize thermal reaction to produce other food essences

Many special aromas are caused by special amino acid and special sugar reaction.

II. Make use of thermal reaction to manufacture other edible flavors

1)      Besides of getting flavor mixtures, some compounds can be made efficiently. Natural isovaleraldehyde generated by heating D-glucose and l-leucine.

2)      The most famous commercial reaction is furanone which acquired from heating D-rhamnose and l-proline

III. Amino acid and other non-sugar raw material reaction

All perfumers and chemists want to get pure compound and simple byproduct, which promote us to develop the next phase. The next generation reaction essence is not amino acid and sugar reaction but direct reaction between natural raw material and amino acid.

IV. It generates various products in various conditions under thermal reaction

1) Reaction essence develops further and causes raw material reaction. These base on the reaction between amino acid and sugar, and generate unique raw material. It is usually different from the reaction between amino acid and sugar. The reaction between D-xylose and l-cysteine is a good example.

2) But if there is other reactions occur between xylose and cysteine in special condition, it will generate other outcome:

Xylose (heated in water)→furfural

Cysteine (heated in water) →sulfureted hydrogen + ammonia

3) Under proper condition and temperature, furfural and sulfuredted hydrogen react in such reaction: furfural + sulfureted hydrogen→two disulfide-bran

4) Mercaptan oxidation can be applied in manufacturing other aroma molecule. Chaff mercaptan and methyl mercaptan can be oxidized into dimethyl disulfide-bran, which is an important raw material. It can be applied in bread, pork and other meat essence.

5)If the sulfureted hydrogen generated by homocysteine reacts with

4-methyl-3-pentene-2-ketone, it will get new raw material 4 - sulfhydryl -4 - methyl -2 – pentanone.

There is a common feature in above reactions, all get flavor and essence belong to natural product. So its security performance is higher than chemical composite product.

All these new trends point out new direction for the thermal reaction research.