Scavenging of Acrolein by Food-Grade Antioxidant Propyl Gallate in a Model Reaction System and Cakes

Reactive carbonyl species (RCS), such as acrolein (ACR), glyoxal (GO), and methylglyoxal (MGO), have received extensive attention recently as a result of their high activity and toxicity in vitro and in vivo. In the present study, propyl gallate (PG), a common food antioxidant, was found to effectively trap more ACR than butylated hydroxytoluene and butylated hydroxyanisole through the formation of mono-ACR adducts (PG–ACR) and di-ACR adducts (PG–2ACR). The two adducts were successfully purified, and their structures were elucidated on the basis of their high-resolution mass spectrometry and 1H, 13C, and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance data. We further identified that PG–ACR had the ability to continue to trap GO and MGO to form PG–ACR–GO and PG–ACR–MGO, respectively, by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Furthermore, we verified that PG could inhibit the production of ACR, GO, and MGO via trapping these RCS simultaneously to form the corresponding adducts in pound cakes using LC–MS/MS.