Understanding safety of glutamate in food and brain.

Glutamate is ubiquitous in nature and is present in all living organisms. It is the principal excitatory neurotransmitter in central nervous system. Glutamate is being used as food additive for enhancing flavour for over last 1200 years imparting a unique taste known as "umami" in Japanese. It is being marketed for about last 100 years. The taste of umami is now recognized as the fifth basic taste. Many of the foods used in cooking for enhancing flavour contain high amount of glutamate. Breast milk has the highest concentration of glutamate amongst all amino acids. Glutamate in high doses as gavage or parenteral injection have been reported to produce neurodegeneration in infant rodents. The neurodegeneration was not produced when gluamate was given with food. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, based on enumerable scientific evidence, has declared that, "glutamate as an additive in food" is not an health hazard to human being. Glutamate is used as signaling molecule not only in neuronal but also in non-neuronal tissues. Excessive accumulation of glutamate in the synaptic cleft has been associated with excitotoxicty and glutamate is implicated in number of neurological disorders. Excessive accumulation could be attributed to increase release, failure of transport system for uptake mechanism, neuronal injury due to hypoxia-ischemia, trauma and associated metabolic failures. The role blood brain barrier, vesicular glutamate and sodium dependent excitatory amino acid transporters in glutamate homeostasis are emphasized in the review.

Efecto de la incorporacion de aditivos sobre el envejecimiento de geles de almidon de maiz y arepas / Effect of the incorporation of additives on the aging of corns starch gels and arepas

Se investigó el efecto de la incorporación de diferentes aditivos sobre el envejecimiento de los almidones de maíz y arepas. Los almidones fueron extraídos a partir de endospermo degerminado de maíz, aplicando un proceso de molienda húmeda, y su retrogradación, con o sin incorporación de aditivos, evaluada utilizando el amilógrato de Brabender, y mediante la medida de cambios en la viscosidad de los geles de almitivos que resultaron ser más efectivos en retardar la velocidad de envejecimiento de los geles se usaron en las arepas. Asimismo, para encontrar los niveles de incorporación en las mismas, se utilzó un páinel de catadores con el fin de establecer la concentración umbral para cada uno de los aditivos. Los cambios en la textura de las arepas - mantenidas a dos temperaturas de almacenaje, 9§ y 23§C - fueron evaluados utilizando un texturómetro Instron. Las pruebas preliminares con el almidón de maíz permitieron seleccionar los siguientes aditivos: monoglicéridos destilados, goma guar y aceite vegetal hidrogenado. Se estudió el efecto de 15 combinaciones diferentes de estos aditivos sobre la textura