Glycation is a non-enzymatic post-translational modification of
proteins, formed by the reaction of reducing sugars and α-dicarbonyl
products of their degradation with amino and guanidino groups of
proteins. Resulted early glycation products are readily involved in
further transformation, yielding a heterogeneous group of advanced
glycation end products (AGEs). Their formation is associated with
ageing, metabolic diseases, and thermal processing of foods. Therefore,
individual glycation adducts are often considered as the markers of
related pathologies and food quality. In this context, their
quantification in biological and food matrices is required for
diagnostics and establishment of food preparation technologies. For
this, exhaustive protein hydrolysis with subsequent amino acid analysis
is the strategy of choice. Thereby, multi-step enzymatic digestion
procedures ensure good recoveries for the most of AGEs, whereas tandem
mass spectrometry (MS/MS) in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode
with stable isotope dilution or standard addition represents "a gold
standard" for their quantification. Although the spectrum of
quantitatively assessed AGE structures is continuously increases,
application of untargeted profiling techniques for identification of new
products is desired, especially for in vivo characterization of
anti-glycative systems. Thereby, due to a high glycative potential of
plant metabolites, more attention needs to be paid on plant-derived
AGEs.