In this study, the antioxidant activity (including ABTS radical scavenging activity and reducing power)
and UVeVis spectra of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) prepared from four sugars (glucose/fructose/
xylose/ribose) and twenty amino acids were studied. The effects of reactants on the antioxidant activity
and UVeVis absorbance of MRPs were investigated using correspondence analysis, which revealed that
MRPs from fructose-amino acid models showed the similar UVeVis absorbance and antioxidant activity
with MRPs from glucose-amino acid models, MRPs from ribose-amino acid models showed the similar
UVeVis absorbance and antioxidant activity with MRPs from xylose-amino acid models, while there was
significant difference between MRPs from hexose (glucose and fructose)-amino acid models and MRPs
from pentose (ribose and xylose)-amino acid models, especially for methionine and valine. The correlation
analysis demonstrated that ABTS radical scavenging activity showed the highest linearity
(r ¼ 0.831) with UV absorbance at 280 nm while reducing power showed the highest linearity (r ¼ 0.689)
with UV absorbance at 355 nm, indicating that different antioxidant properties of MRPs might derive
from different compounds. Besides, as compared with cysteine, tyrosine and tryptophan showed
a certain ABTS radical scavenging activity in spite of little reducing power.