Free amino acids in commercially available vegetable juice drinks

Abstract

  We investigated the composition of free amino acids, including free amino acids in 29 brands of commercially available vegetable juices.
1) The composition of the free amino acids were similar among the 29 brands.
2) The total amount of free amino acids was 153. 3±92. 1mg/100 ml (range, 68. 1 to 403. 4mg/100ml). The predominant free amino acids were glutamic acid, aspartic acid, alanine, asparagine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and arginine.
3) Four of the 29 brands contained≥30mgγ-aminobutyric acid /100ml, and these brands had the common ingredients of carrot and tomato.
4) A strong positive correlation was observed between the total free amino acid and glutamic acid content (r=0. 941), total free amino acid and γ-aminobutyric acid content (r=0. 951), total free amino acid and branched-chain amino acid content (r=0. 950), and between glutamic acid andγ-aminobutyric acid content (r=0. 936).