INVESTIGATIONS OF THE EXTRACTION OF AROMA COMPOUNDS USING THE SIMULTANEOUS DISTILLATION-EXTRACTION ACCORDING TO LIKENS-NICKERSON

One method which is often used in flavour chemistry for the preparatio n of aroma extracts is the simultaneous distillation-extraction accord ing to Likens-Nickerson. With this method high yields can be obtained and in many cases the aroma quality of the gained extracts are represe ntative for the aroma of the examined food. Experiments were carried o ut to examine the influence of a fat amount of 20% in the aqueous matr ix on the recovery of 65 different flavour compounds. Most of the comp ounds give good recoveries in both media. N-alkanes and carbonyl compo unds with a carbon number higher than 14 show high affinity to the apo lar phase of the added fat and therefore give low recoveries. Bad resu lts are obtained with highly polar compounds as the affinity to the aq ueous matrix is very high. Sulfur compounds should be treated very car efully as partially they are very aroma potent compounds. Due to the t hermal instability of some sulfur compounds their recoveries are very low. These facts should be considered when aroma extracts are prepared to avoid misinterpretations of the overall aroma of the examined food .