## 3 Results and Discussion
### Use of Phenolic Compounds to Inhibit or Block the Maillard Reaction in Bakery Products
#### 3.5.1. Bread  
Extracts from cereals and pseudocereals (e.g., sorghum, buckwheat, pigmented rice, corn, etc.) and extracts from plant-origin foods (e.g., grapeseed, tea, etc.) have been successfully used to inhibit the formation of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) in bread. [PERSON] et al. investigated the inhibitory potential of sorghum bran extract (SBE), grape-seed extract (GSE), and green-tea extract (GTE) against acrylamide formation in bread [26]. The three phenolic extracts were especially rich in flavonoids but were also a good source of anthocyanins and proanthocyanathos, flavones, and flavanols. The enrichment of bread with SBE was the most successful; supplementation with SBE at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% allowed for a reduction in the acrylamide content of 53, 61, and 70%, respectively, compared with the control [26]. On the other hand, enrichment with the GSE at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% resulted in a decrease in acrylamide concentration equal to 22, 48, and 60%, respectively. The addition of GTE to the bread formulation was not equally promising; enrichment at 0.5 and 1.0% resulted in a non-significantly different content of acrylamide in bread compared with the control [26]. It was speculated that the more effective action of phenolic extracts from sorghum bran and grape seeds against acrylamide formation was due to the phenolic profile of the two extracts compared with that of the green-tea extract. Phenolic extracts of common buckwheat (_Fagopyrum esculentum_ [PERSON]) and Tartary buckwheat (_Fagopyrum tataricum_ [PERSON]) have been also applied in breadmaking [25]. In detail, phenolic extracts from Tartary buckwheat seeds, Tartary buckwheat sprouts, common buckwheat seeds, and common buckwheat sprouts were added to bread formulations, and it emerged that the acrylamide content was reduced by 23.5, 27.3, 17.0, and 16.7%, respectively [25]. However, only the extracts obtained from Tartary buckwheat determined a significant decrease compared with the control. A significant positive correlation between the reduction in the acrylamide content and the total phenolic compound content and antioxidative activity of the extracts was also observed. In this study, it was also found that the enrichment did not affect negatively the organoleptic properties of bread; rather, it improved the color characteristics [25]. The effect of the inclusion of flours from different cereals on the formation of fluoresine, free fluorescent AGEs, deoxyglucose (3-DG), methylglyoxal (MGO), and N \(\varepsilon\)-(carboxymethyl)lysine in the crust and crumb of model breads has also been investigated [28]. N \(\varepsilon\)-carboxymethyl-lysine (CML) and N \(\varepsilon\)-carboxymethyl-lysine (CEL) are both AGEs. Wholegrain white, brown, wild, red, and black rice flour and yellow and purple corn flour were added to the bread formulations. Pigmented grains and wholegrains are, in fact, known to be raw materials very rich in phytochemicals [38; 39; 40; 41]. The furosine content was generally higher in the crust than in the crumb, except for bread made from brown-rice flour, which showed no significant statistical difference between the furosine concentration in the crust and in the crumb [28]. As regards bread crust, the furosine concentration was highest in wild rice and lowest in yellow corn bread (Table 2). The levels of free fluorescent AGEs were highest in the crust of bread formulated with brown-rice flour and lowest in purple-corn-flour-formulated bread. It was speculated that the lowest concentration of free fluorescent AGEs might be due to several aspects. First, purple corn flour showed low levels of cysteine and methionine, whose thiol groups are converted to thiyl radicals, which can react with C-H bonds in peptides and proteins, thus generating carbon-centered radicals that are responsible for protein degradation.