The Taste Compounds in Fermented Entrails of Trepang, Stichopus Japonicus

Fermented trepang entrails, Stichopus Japonicus, is widely used and occupied an important position in foods of this country. But little study on its taste compounds has been reported. This study was attempted to establish the basic data for evaluating taste compounds of fermented trepang entrails. Changes of free amino acids, free sugars, nucleotides and their related compounds as taste compounds during the fermentation of trepang entrails were analyzed by amino acid autoanalyzer and high speed liquid chromatography. Glutamic acid, alanine, glycine and proline were dominant amino acid in the fresh extracts, having 32.3%, 16.4%, 12.0% and 10.5% of the total free amino acid content, respectively. The content of leucine, valine, phenylalanine, isoleucine, methionine and tyrosine were low. The free amino acid were not changed in composition but changed in amounts during the fermentation of trepang entrails. Glutamic acid, alanine, glycine, proline, lysine, arginine and leucine were abundant in both fresh sample and fermented products. Free sugars in fermented trepang entrails, the results showed that galactose(933.7-988.0 mg%) was dominant and the content of arabinose, xylose were 78.7, 55.2-771mg% on moisture and salt free base respectively but glucose was detected in trace amount. Nucleotides and their related compounds were increased during the fermentation and hypoxanthine(47.1-, on moisture and salt free base) were dominant, IMP was abundant in fermented trepang entrails. TMA was increased while TMAO was decreased during the fermentation. The content of TMAO nitrogen in fermented trepang entrails was 30.0mg% on moisture and salt free base. The content of betine was increased during the fermentation and was ranged from 734.2 to 934.2mg% on moisture and salt free base. It is believed that such amino acids as glutamic acid, alanine, glycine, lysine, proline, arginine, leucine, such free sugars as galactose, arabinose, xylose, glucose, such nucleotides and their related compounds as IMP, hypoxanthine play an important role as taste compounds in fermented trepang entrails.