Examining of athermal effects in microwave-induced glucose/glycine reaction and degradation of polysaccharide from Porphyra yezoensis

•Athermal effects of microwave on simplified model as glucose/glycine were examined.•Microwave and bath heating did not cause any change of Maillard reaction products.•All data failed to show any significant athermal effects in compositional changes. Many reports claim the existence of athermal effects in microwave-induced reactions, and this challenge the assumption that the thermal effect (heating) is the sole factor in microwave heating. Therefore, microwave-induced Maillard reaction of d-glucose/glycine and degradation of polysaccharide from Porphyra yezoensis (PSPY) were investigated. Browning reactions were monitored by measuring heating rate, UV-absorbance and brown color, UV–vis and synchronous fluorescence spectra, GC/MS analysis and intrinsic viscosity of degradation. Heating of d-glucose/glycine solution produced brown compounds which were detected at A420, and the intermediate products, 2-acetylfuran and 5-methylfurfural, whose fluorescence intensity evidenced their formation. Maximum emission of synchronous fluorescence spectra of samples were at 430–440nm and 370–390nm. Both microwave and water bath heating did not cause any compositional changes in the Maillard reaction products. All data failed to show any significant athermal effects of compositional changes in the Maillard reaction products. It can be inferred that some of the reports suggesting the existence of athermal effects, which could ascribe to the different set-up obtained in not well temperature controlled microwave heating systems.