Flavour and pharmaceutical properties of the volatile sulphur compounds ofWasabi (Wasabia japonica)

Wasabi, sometimes known as Japanese horseradish (Wasabia japonica Matsum), is a perennial crop much prized for its pungent taste and is used extensive ly in Japanese cuisine. The rhizome, which contains most of the flavour, is the part most widely used, although both the leaves and petioles contain s ome of the flavour. This review discusses the mixture of volatile compounds (isothiocyanates) which give wasabi its distinctive flavour, the character istics of the wasabi myrosinase (which liberates the isothiocyanates from p recursor molecules) and the stability of these isothiocyanates in solvents or aqueous solutions. Finally, a number of interesting pharmacological prop erties (including possible anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory activiti es) attributed to extracts of wasabi are mentioned. (C) 1999 Published by E lsevier Science Ltd on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology.