Quantitation of carnosine in humans plasma after dietary consumption of beef
Open-label, no control groupHumans
- Design
- Open-label, no control group
- Subjects
- 18 adults (9 male, 9 female)
- Dose used in the study
- A single meal of 200 g cooked ground beef containing 124 mg carnosine per 100 g, about 248 mg carnosine in total
- Duration
- Single meal after an overnight fast and 48 hours without meat; blood sampled from before the meal through 24 hours
- What was measured
- Plasma carnosine by HPLC before the meal, at 15 minutes after eating and at later points over 24 hours.
What the authors reported
Plasma carnosine was undetectable before the meal. It was detectable from 15 minutes after eating, peaked at 32.7 mg per litre of plasma at 2.5 hours, then fell and was undetectable again by 5.5 hours. The authors conclude that dietary carnosine is absorbed into human plasma after beef consumption and may act as a bioactive food component.
Limits of this study
Single-arm, single-meal design with no control food. The abstract does not state the intermediate sampling times, the concentrations other than the peak, or any step taken to stop plasma carnosinase hydrolysing carnosine in drawn blood samples; a 2025 review (Nutrients 17:2130) notes that the reported values may have been lowered by continued carnosinase breakdown during sample processing. Plasma was measured, not muscle or tissue content. Full text not read.
Source
PubMed 15941308 · doi:10.1021/jf047934h
Entry checked against PubMed abstract (E-utilities) on 2026-10-19. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.