The chemistry of the Maillard reaction under physiological conditions: a review.

The chemistry of the Maillard reaction is one of the most challenging to study due to its extreme complexity. When it come to elucidating the structure of Maillard products bound to macromolecules, whether in foodstuffs or biological proteins, the difficulty becomes enormous. Although the structure of a variety of Maillard compounds has been elucidated in model systems at higher temperature, it is presently unknown to what extent they occur in vivo. Past and current approaches to obtain clues on the chemical nature of Maillard products formed under physiological conditions are reviewed.