Umami taste, free amino acid composition, and volatile compounds of brown seaweeds

• Published in: Journal of applied phycology Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 1213 - 1232
• Main Authors: Mouritsen, Ole G., Duelund, Lars, Petersen, Mikael Agerlin, Hartmann, Anna Loraine, Frøst, Michael Bom
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alaria; Algae; Amino acid composition; Amino acids; Biomedical and Life Sciences; chefs; Chemical composition; Comparative analysis; Ecklonia; Ecology; Flavour; Food; food industry; Foods; free amino acids; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Fucus; Himanthalia; humans; Iodine; Laminaria; Life Sciences; Macrocystis; Nereocystis; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Postelsia; Saccharina japonica; Sargassum; Seaweeds; soups; Taste; Umami; Undaria; Volatile compounds; Brown seaweeds; Taste; GC; Umami; HPLC-MS
• ISSN: 0921-8971; 1573-5176
• DOI: 10.1007/s10811-018-1632-x

Umami taste is associated with deliciousness and was first suggested as a basic taste by Kikunae Ikeda in 1909 when he discovered that the brown seaweed konbu ( Saccharina japonica ), used to provide aqueous extracts for the Japanese soup stock dashi , contains very large amounts of free glutamate. We have performed a comparative analysis of the free amino acid contents of 20 different species of brown seaweeds used for human consumption from around the world, belonging to the 12 genera Nereocystis , Macrocystis , Laminaria , Saccharina , Undaria , Alaria , Postelsia , Himanthalia , Ecklonia (former Eisenia ), Sargassum , Fucus , and Corda . We furthermore measured mineral and iodine contents as well as identified a range of volatile compounds and estimated their influence on the perception of umami taste. The results provide a basis on which chefs and food producers can control umami sensation in food items using some of the most popular species of edible brown seaweeds.