Heterocyclic amine formation and the impact of structure on their mutagenicity

The occurrence and formation of heterocyclic amines in foods is discussed in light of the consistent finding of a new class of imidazopyridines. In addition, a quantitative structure–activity relationship will be presented correlating the potency of these imidazopyridines to predicted chemical properties. Although no strong linear correlation is found between the potency and the chemical properties, a low dipole moment is found to be a qualitative predictor of high mutagenic potency.