Studies on the Unpleasant Smell (Jukushi-Ka) in the Breath of Men after Drinking Saké (I)

Abstract

The unpleasant smell of sake drinker's breath has been called jukushi-ka in Japanese (jukushi means overripe persimmon fruits and ka means smell), since two rather unpleasant smells are very similar. This is inevitable disadvantage accompanying sake drinking.Each 250L of breath was collected from 5 adults before or after drinking a portion of 500ml of sake. The breath samples were concentrated to 15ml by a cooling condenser at -80°C. The components of the unpleasant smell were analyzed by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and gas chromatography (GC) together with various color reactions. The color reactions of R-OH, R-CHO, R=CO and R-NH2 were positive only in the breath sample after drinking. Twelve components were identified by thin TLC and GC from drinker's breath. They were acetaldehyde, ethyl alcokhol, acetone, diacetyl, ethyl acetate, n-propyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, aldol, isoamyl alcohol, acetoin, ethanol amine and isobutyl amine. In contrast, the breath sample from the control (before drinking) showed the presence of only a trace of ethyl alcohol. The mixture of the 12 components detected by gas chromatograpy had a very similar smell to the so-called jukushi-ka