Correlation of methylglyoxal with acrylamide formation in fructose/asparagine Maillard reaction model system

α-Dicarbonyl compounds were highly reactive intermediates formed in Maillard reaction (MR), and o-phenylenediamine (OPD) was widely used as a trapping agent for α-dicarbonyl compounds. Both aqueous fructose/asparagine (Fru/Asn) and fructose/asparagine/o-phenylenediamine (Fru/Asn/OPD) model systems were heated at 150 °C for up to 30 min. Methylglyoxal (MG) was the main α-dicarbonyl compounds formed in MR, which was chosen as a representative of α-dicarbonyl compound to investigate the influence on acrylamide (AA) formation. The concentrations of AA, MG and Asn were detected during MR by HPLC method. The results indicated that the formation of AA increased with the heating time, and nearly 75% of AA was formed through the participation of α-dicarbonyl compounds. The amounts of formation and consumption of MG increased with heating time, and from 12 min of reaction, the consumed amounts of MG accounted for 62.1–90.3% on the basis of total amounts of MG formed in MR, suggesting that most of the MG took part in further reactions. Meanwhile, Asn concentration decreased with heating time in both models. The formation of AA and consumption of Asn were highly correlated with MG. Indeed, as MG concentration in MG/Asn model system decreased during heating at 150 °C, the concentration of AA significantly increased. The coefficient of correlation between consumed amounts of MG and the formed amounts of AA was 0.931, demonstrating that MG plays a role in AA formation.