Louis-Camille Maillard was born on February 4, 1878 in Pont-a-Mousson. He went to Nancy, where he obtained the degrees of M.Sc. in 1897 and Dr.Med. in 1903. Thereafter he worked in the Chemical Division of the School of Medicine, University of Nancy.
He began to study the condensation of amino acids by using glycerol and as a result, obtained cycloglycylglycine and pentaglycylglycine. Then, he used sugars instead of glycerol to investigate the formation of polypeptides from amino acids. In the latter investigation, he found that the aldehyde group (of an aldose) had more intense effect on amino acids than the hydroxyl groups. This led to the discovery of the browning reaction, which is now more commonly known as the Maillard reaction.
In 1912, he published a paper describing the reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars during heating that resulted in discoloration (browning) of the reaction mixture. This network of reactions between amino acids and reducing sugars came to be known as the Maillard reaction. For the next 60+ years, work on the Maillard reaction focused on foods and food-like model systems, and the Maillard reaction became recognized as an important member of the group of browning reactions that take place in foods and beverages.
Louis-Camille Maillard discovered maillard reaction
