The Maillard reaction is one of the most common and most complex reaction that takes place mainly in foods. The Maillard reaction is very significant for the dairy industries because it strongly affects the end quality.
In 1912, a French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard (1878-1936) observed the formation of yellow-brown pigments in the reaction among sugars and amino acids, polypeptides, or proteins; and among polysaccharides and polypeptides, or proteins, in a heated solution.
Maillard was born in eastern France in 1878, in a family that had been living for a long time in Lorraine, France and he died in Paris in 1936.
Maillard admitted at the age of 16 to the University of Nancy and obtained his Masters of Science in Nancy in 1897 and his Doctor of Medicine in 1903. He then worked in the Chemical Division of the School of Medicine at the University of Nancy.
In 1912 Maillard published a paper describing the reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars during heating that resulted in discoloration (browning) of the reaction mixture. This network of reactions between amino acids and reducing sugars came to be known as the Maillard reaction. In doing so, Maillard aet the foundations of serious food science.
For the next 60+ years, work on the Maillard reaction focused on foods and food-like model systems, and the Maillard reaction became recognized as an important member of the group of browning reactions that take place in foods and beverages.
Louis-Camille Maillard
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