So I know that it is kind of confusing what I have been doing here, especially if the subject matter is foreign to you. In short, this machine above, the HPLC, and I have had to become best friends for the past few weeks. Chemists know the HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography) very well for its purpose of fingerprinting chemical compounds in liquid samples. It is also famous for being touchy and a pain in the derriére, but all the while useful. So, what does this have to do with me?
In many food products there are non-enzymatic browning reactions, called Maillard reactions, that take place between amino acids and sugars. This is the reason that milk turns brown when you heat it and also the reason why bread turns brown and has that nice ethanol-y flavor and aroma after baking. So what? Why do we care? Amino acids make up protein compositions and we need the whole gamet of amino acids in order to have a strong protein health profile. By eating just beans or just meat, you don't get some of these amino acids, no matter how much you eat. Why do beans usually come with rice? Because together they form a synergy of complete protein. Haven't they been telling us that a balanced diet is the way to go?
There is one amino acid that is not found in great abundance, it is the limiting amino acid in bread and other cereal products, lysine. Well you say that we should try to conserve lysine so that we can consume complete proteins and be healthy, right? Well that is where the Maillard Reaction comes into play. Upon addition of heat (eg. baking), lysine reacts with the sugars naturally present to result in browning, and those characteristic bread-like aromas and flavors. One of the compounds that furosine can turn into for this is furosine. Furosine is used by companies to monitor levels of Maillard reactions in their food products. Furosine...the holy grail of my summer.
So, at my job here I started off by making the classic French bread in the beginning; I learned the process and the reasons why everything is done the way it is done. Then I spent an inordinate amount of time researching every little tidbit of information I could find about furosine. I learned that this reaction occurs in a wide range of food products, especially dairy. I learned how and why the lysine turns into furosine. The particular interest of the team here is the effects of addition of inulin for fiber supplementation. And then, I learned how to test. Enter the HPLC. The extraction of this chemical was definitely difficult; morcels of the bread becoming very friendly with the most concentrated hydrochloric acid I have ever seen at very high temperatures for 24 hours! Then there were ore chemicals added, more dehydration and more filtering.
By the end of each extraction, we ended up with tiny vials of golden liquid (reminding me each time off the poison that Leonardo DiCaprio takes in Romeo and Juliet) that would soon meet their fate with the HPLC. I was very surprised how easy all of the testing went. We didn't really have any problems with the machine or any of the processes. The only problem was that by the time I could start testing, there wasn't enough time to run a full gamet of samples to entirely exhaust the subject. Soon the Frenchies depart for their much relished summer vacation, only to return in September. The lab closes a week from Monday and next week is only a 3 day work week because there is a holiday, 14 juillet (their Independance Day).
As such, all the machines had to be closed down today. The lab is preparing for its hibernation and next week (my last 3 days of work here) there will only be reports written and presentations given. I share my office with the HPLC and it is a bit bizarre to not hear its gentle purring. The absence of sound is always a reminder of what could have been. I am a bit sad that after getting so interested in the subject for the past couple of months, I won't be able to do more experiments on it.
Ahh well there are new adventures to be had and new subjects in which to become interested.
C'est la vie.
Dear HPLC,
Thank you for not ruining my morale.
Love,
Amanda
