• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.451-460
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate the volatile compounds of Korean traditional gochujang from various districts. The volatiles from each traditional gochujang are being extracted by simultaneous steam distillation extraction (SDE), and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Twenty compounds are identified as major volatile components which include 8 esters, 4 alcohols and 4 acids. The most traditional gochujang possesses more volatile components rather than commercial gochujang products. Most acids come from fatty acids and the alcohols derive from the oxidative degradation of linolenic acid. The most abundant volatile compounds for both traditional and commercial gochujang include 10 compounds such as 2-methyl-1-propanol, hexanal, 2-methyl-1-butanol, octanoic acid ethyl ester, as well as the various type of acids and esters. They represent most of the total GC peak areas, respectively. From the results, the characteristics of the flavors for traditional gochujang from each district are not clear but have shown various components than the commercial products.