Extractive Components of Scallop and Identification of its Taste-active Components by Omission Test

Abstract

In order to identify the taste-active components of scallop Patinopecten yessoensis, freeIn order to identify the taste-active components of scallop Patinopecten yessoensis, free and combined amino acids, nucleotides and related compounds, quaternary ammonium bases, organic acids, glycogen, inorganic ions, etc. in the muscle extract were analyzed. High content of glycine and taurine, and a high but somewhat lower content of arginine, alanine and glutamic acid were shown. These five amino acids occupied 97% of the total free amino acids. Besides, considerable amounts of AMP, glycinebetaine, homarine, trigonel- line, trimethylamine oxide and trimethylamine were observed. More than 95% of the total extractive nitrogen was accounted for by these nitrogenous constituents. The succinic acid content was very low, while a large amount of glycogen was detected. As for inorganic ions, Na+, Kt+, Cl- and PO43- were major components. After confirming sensorially that the synthetic extract prepared with pure chemicals in accordance with the analytical data except glycogen and combined amino acids could reproduce the taste of the scallop extract fairly well, we carried out omission tests and found that glycine, glutamic acid, alanine, arginine, AMP, Na+, K+ and Cl- were taste-active.