Spicy breast milk?
Spicy substance from pepper gets into breast milk after eating

Date:
November 29, 2021
Source:
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Summary:
In part of a recent human study led by the Technical University
of Munich (TUM), it was found that after eating a curry dish
containing pepper, piperine - an alkaloid responsible for the
pungency of pepper - was present in the milk of breastfeeding
women. The findings help decipher mechanisms that shape our food
preferences from infancy.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Breast milk is the first food that babies consume. Various studies have suggested that the "taste experience" in early childhood influences
eating behavior in adults. Unlike standardized infant formula, natural
milk does not taste and smell the same every day. The differences are
largely due to the maternal diet.


==========================================================================
No one-to-one transfer However, the taste and aroma of food consumed
by the mother are not transferred one-to-one to her milk. Research has
already shown that odor and taste active substances from garlic or coffee partly enter the mother's milk as an odor active metabolic product, while flavors from fish oil or nursing tea were of little to no significance
in this respect.

The extent to which pungent substances from chili, ginger, or pepper
are found in breast milk has been even less researched than aroma and
taste substances.

For this reason, a scientific team led by TUM has now investigated
whether these substances are transferred from food to breast milk and
if so, which ones.

Piperine detectable after just one hour Through extensive mass
spectrometric analyses, the team has shown that already one hour after consumption of a standardized curry dish, piperine is detectable in
breast milk for several hours. "The observed maximum concentrations
of 14 to 57 micrograms per liter were about 70- to 350-fold below the
taste perception threshold of an adult," says Professor Corinna Dawid,
who heads the Chair of Food Chemistry and Molecular Sensory Science at
TUM commissarial for Professor Thomas Hofmann.

Roman Lang, who was initially involved in the study as a scientist at TUM
and later at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology (LSB) adds,
"It seems rather unlikely to us that the infants consciously perceive
the sharpness.

Nevertheless, it is conceivable that regular, low-threshold activation
of the "pungent receptor" TRPV1 could help to increase tolerance for
such substances later on." Pungents from ginger or chili as well as
the secondary plant compound curcumin, which is also abundant in curry,
did not enter milk, according to the research.

"We were particularly surprised by the latter, since piperine is supposed
to significantly increase the bioavailability of curcumin according
to the results of other studies," reports Roman Lang, who heads the
Biosystems Chemistry & Human Metabolism research group at the LSB.

"These observations were made in collaboration with our partners
from the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, the
Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV, and the
LSB. Continued exploration will help us to better understand both the
emergence of food preferences and the metabolic processes that play a
role in the transfer of bioactive food ingredients into breast milk,"
says TUM-Professor Corinna Dawid.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Technical_University_of_Munich_(TUM). Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Katharina N'Diaye, Marcel Debong, Ju"rgen Behr, Sebastian
Dirndorfer,
Tara Duggan, Anja Beusch, Verena Schlagbauer, Corinna Dawid,
Helene M.

Loos, Andrea Buettner, Roman Lang, Thomas Hofmann. Dietary Piperine
is Transferred into the Milk of Nursing Mothers. Molecular Nutrition
& Food Research, 2021; 2100508 DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.202100508 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211129105546.htm

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