[Analysis of flavor compositions of Chinese distillate spirits by fast gas chromatography]

Many kinds of flavor compositions exist in Chinese traditional distillate spirits (liquor), including alcohols, aldehydes, organic acids and esters, the ratios of which decide the flavor and quality of the liquor. In general, these components can be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by gas chromatography. However, the traditional analytical method takes longer analysis time. To shorten the analysis time, a fast gas chromatographic method was developed for analyzing the flavor compositions in Chinese liquors. Good results were obtained using a 20 m x 0.1 mm x 0.1 microm fused-silica capillary column with analysis time within 12 minutes. Moreover, the reproducibility of this method was also very good, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of most components were less than 5% except the acids because of their higher boiling points.