Isolation and partial purification of astringent compounds from ultra-high temperature sterilized milk

Abstract

SummaryAstringent off-flavours were observed in commercial samples of UHT-milk heated by direct-steam injection. The off-flavour components from these milk samples were isolated by the chloroform-methanol extraction procedure of Harwalkar & Elliott. The astringent-tasting components in these extracts were partly purified by isoelectric precipitation at pH 7·0 and by size exclusion chromatography on Sephadex G-50 columns. The extracted off-flavour components and the partly purified samples were further analysed by FPLC using a Mono-Q anion exchange column and PAGE. The FPLC and PAGE patterns of the extracts from astringent and non-astringent samples of milk showed marked differences and the astringent flavour correlated with one of the fractions resolved by FPLC. This fraction was found to be heterogeneous by PAGE. The astringent off-flavours in UHT-sterilized milk were γ-casein-like breakdown products of casein.