Chemical transformations of Amadori compounds are responsible for the formation of aroma volatiles at the end of the Maillard reaction cascade, which in turn contributes to unique organoleptic characteristics of chocolate. A large amount of short peptides reported in fermented cocoa suggests the existence of a much larger variety of these flavor precursors than previously suspected. An HPLC-MS-MS study was performed on dried Malaysian cocoa beans to identify novel Amadori and Heyns compounds. In total, 34 species were found, including 26 previously unknown derived from di- and tripeptides. We illustrate how the structures were elucidated via tandem MS experiments, as well as present a comparative study on their relative quantities in samples coming from 11 countries of origin. There were significant differences between them, and discrimination was possible by principal component analysis based on Amadori content alone. However, the PCA separation could be a result of various post-harvest practices exerted among said countries.

Amadori化合物的化学转化负责在美拉德反应级联结束时形成香气挥发物，进而有助于巧克力的独特感官特性。发酵可可中报道的大量短肽表明，这些风味物前体的存在比以前怀疑的要多得多。在干燥的马来西亚可可豆上进行了HPLC-MS-MS研究，以确定新的Amadori和Heyns化合物。总共发现了34种，包括26种先前未知的二肽和三肽。我们说明了如何通过串联质谱实验阐明这些结构，并提供了对来自11个原产国的样品中其相对含量的比较研究。他们之间有很大的不同，通过仅基于Amadori含量的主成分分析就可以进行区分。但是，五氯苯甲醚的分离可能是上述国家采取的各种收获后做法的结果。