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The Tyramine Content of Cheese

1948; Elsevier BV; Volume: 31; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(48)92207-3

1529-9066

F.V. Kosikowsky, A. C. Dahlberg,

Identification and Quantification in Food

The process of cheese ripening produces a variety of nitrogenous decomposition products, some of which must exert an important influence upon the ripening process.Yet relatively little is known concerning the nature of many of these compounds, their concentration in cheese, their specific rSle in ripening, and their nutritional value.For example, information is relatively meager on the amino acids freed in cheese during ripening, and even less is known concerning the respective amines which may be formed from these amino acids.This paper deals with a small portion of this complex problem in that a quantitative study on cheese was made of the amine derived from tyrosine.This breakdown product from tyrosine is p-hydroxyphenylethylamine and very commonly is referred to as tyramine.No information has been available to indicate its quantitative concentration in cheese, with the single exception of an Emmenthal cheese.Tyramine is an alkaloid of the aromatic amine type.It can be produced by heating tyrosine with a high boiling solvent such as diphenylamine or by bacterial decomposition of tyrosine.Often it occurs in decaying protein and it also is found in ergot and mistletoe.Tyramine has a boiling point of 179-181 ° C. (8 ram.) and a melting point of 161 ° C. When injected subcutaneously or intravenously, it has the property of contracting the peripheral blood vessels, thus causing an increase in blood pressure, and for this reason it is used rather frequently in medicine.Gale (6) found the optimum production of tyramine by bacterial cells to occur at pH 4.5 to 5.5, which is in the pH range of normal American Cheddar cheese.Tyramine was first discovered in cheese in 1903 by Van Slyke and Hart (8) in their research to show the source of carbon dioxide in cheese.They made two small batches of Cheddar cheese from fresh milk and from fresh milk to which chloroform had been added.Of specific interest in their study was the accumulation of relatively large amounts of tyrosine and no tyramine in the chloroformed cheese (a low acid cheese) after curing for 32 weeks at 15.5 ° C. (60 ° F.) as compared with lesser amounts of tyrosine and positive tests for tyramine in the normal cheese.This conversion of tyrosine to tyramine was thought to be due to bacteria.They cited the research of Emerson (5), published the previous year, which established l~eceived for publication December 10, 1947.