Quantitation and Enantiomeric Ratios of Aroma Compounds Formed by an Ehrlich Degradation of l -Isoleucine in Fermented Foods

The conversion of parent free amino acids into alcohols by an enzymatic deamination, decarboxylation, and reduction caused by microbial enzymes was first reported more than 100 years ago and is today known as the Ehrlich pathway. Because the chiral center at the carbon bearing the methyl group in l-isoleucine should not be prone to racemization during the reaction steps, the analysis of the enantiomeric distribution in 2-methylbutanal, 2-methylbutanol, and 2-methylbutanoic acid as well as in the compounds formed by secondary reactions, such as ethyl 2-methylbutanoate and 2-methylbutyl acetate, are an appropriate measure to follow the proposed degradation mechanism in the Ehrlich reaction. On the basis of a newly developed method for quantitation and chiral analysis, the enantiomers of the five metabolites were determined in a great number of fermented foods. Whereas 2-methylbutanol occurred as pure (S)-enantiomer in nearly all samples, a ratio of almost 1:1 of (S)- and (R)-2-methylbutanal was found. These data are not in agreement with the literature suggesting the formation of 2-methylbutanol by an enzymatic reduction of 2-methylbutanal. Also, the enantiomeric distribution in 2-methylbutanoic acid was closer to that in 2-methylbutanol than to that found in 2-methylbutanal, suggesting that also the acid is probably not formed by oxidation of the aldehyde as previously proposed. Additional model studies with (S)-2-methylbutanal did not show a racemization under the conditions of food production or during workup of the sample for volatile analysis. Therefore, the results establish that different mechanisms might be responsible for the formation of aldehydes and acids from the parent amino acids in the Ehrlich pathway.