ROASTED PEANUT FLAVOR AND RELATED COMPOSITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PEANUT KERNELS OF SPRING AND FALL CROPS GROWN IN TAIWAN

Spring and Fall crops of peanut are grown each year in Taiwan. A gener al consumer concept indicating that the roasted peanut flavor of the k ernels of the former is inferior to the latter deserves further invest igation. Tainan 11 and Tainan 12 (Spanish cultivars) were consecutivel y grown for two crops in an experimental field with green pea for rota tion and harvested 70 days after flowering. In compositional analyses of the sound and mature kernels, the ratio of the contents of typical and atypical flavor precursors of free amino acids (T:AT) was higher w hile the sucrose content was lower in the kernels of Fall crops than t hose of Spring crops. In headspace analysis, the total volatile conten t varied insignificantly while the sulfur volatile content was higher in the kernels of Spring crops. When the kernels were roasted and subj ected to peanut oil and flavor extraction and GCMS analysis of the pyr azine compounds, the contents of the total pyrazines and most of the p eanut flavor-related pyrazines were higher in the kernels of Fall crop s than those of Spring crops.