Alanine (DL)

One of the oldest usages of alanine in history is adding it to synthetic sake, to provide richness and remove pungency like refined sake.
Nowadays, it is widely used in pickles, soup, sauce, soy sauce, miso paste, broth, and fish cake, to provide flavor and richness to these food products.

Alanine has delicate and refreshing sweetness, much stronger sweetness than sugar.
Traditionally, Alanine was used to improve the taste quality of artificial sweeteners like saccharin, and it has been recently discovered that a sweetener preparation suitable for a target food can be prepared by combining different high-intensity sweeteners such as Aspartame, Acesulfame Potassium, and Sucralose, as well as by modifying the blending ratio of Alanine.

Alanine moderates various bitterness, astringent taste, and harsh taste and brings out umami.

Milder saltiness
Alanine moderates the intensity of saltiness and enhances umami.

Milder vinegar taste
Alanine moderates acidity without affecting the pH balance significantly.

Other effects
Alanine moderate bitterness, astringent taste, and harsh taste (masking effect).

Alcohol is decomposed in the liver and turns into Acetaldehyde, which causes hangover.
Hepatic glycogen is necessary for decomposing Acetaldehyde, and it is said that Alanine is a material for hepatic glycogen and helps promote the effect of decomposing Acetaldehyde.
In recent years, research around Amino Acids including alanine for improvement of liver function has been conducted.

Alanine is one of the natural moisturizing factors (NMF) that generally exist in the stratum corneum. Approximately 40% of the NMF are composed of free Amino Acids, and these Amino Acids are composed of Serine (30%), Glycine (18%) and Alanine (9%). Amino Acids including Alanine provide a high moisturizing effect in the stratum corneum, which prevents the surface of the skin from becoming alkaline, while enhancing the barrier function of the stratum corneum and moisturizing the skin.
Leveraging such functions, Amino Acids are widely applied to areas like skin lotion and shampoo nowadays.

• It has an amino group and a carboxyl group in the molecule. These functional groups combine with metal ions to produce chelate, which is expected to dissociate metal through the reaction upon electroless plating, and forms a good film on the surface.
• As chelate has a higher stability constant, it can increase the metal concentration in the plating solution.
• Alanine is an Amino Acid abundantly found in nature, and it is safe.
• As it is a neutral Amino Acid and holds cushioning properties, the pH balance in the plating solution will not change to extreme acidity or alkali.
• Alanine’s stability constants of various metals differ from those of another neutral Amino Acid, Glycine. Because of these differences, it is expected to potentially achieve the improvement of the plating film.
• Neutral Amino Acids stabilize the reducing agents for the electroless plating such as formaldehyde by producing additional compounds*. This effect prevents the development of metal precipitation caused by the unexpected occurrence of the reduction in the plating solution. Further, because a stabilization triggered by the production of additional compounds of neutral Amino Acids and Formaldehyde is a reversible reaction, the decomposition of the compound releases Formaldehyde with the consumption of formaldehyde. Consequently, the plating solution becomes stable.

*Electroless Plating, Basics and Applications, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun

Alanine is one of the components for umami contained in various kinds of food such as seafood and meat.
When used alone, alanine can provide sufficient umami and fulfill its purpose as an umami seasoning; however, it enhances its umami when combined with other umami seasonings.

Alanine is an amino acid that causes less browning that is usually triggered by the Maillard reaction, one of the causes of discoloration in food.