Abstract
Aromatic rice, a group of rice that emits a special aroma when cooked, has been cultivated in many regions throughout Japan and in many Asian countries for many years. We examined the sensory tests for judging the aroma of matured grains and fresh leaves (lamina) of aromatic rice varieties. In the boiled grain method, where the grains are boiled with water in a test tube. In the KOH leaf method, the leaves are sniffed for aroma 10 minutes after adding 10 ml of 1.7% KOH solution to 1 g of fine pieces of green leaf sample in a glass petri-dish. The 20 aromatic rice varieties showed a wide range of aroma strength in both boiled grain and KOH leaf method. The grain and leaf aroma strength were hardly affected by the fertilizer level and the grain aroma strength showed no clear tendency with the delay in the harvest time after heading among 9 aromatic rice varieties. The relationship between grain aroma and leaf aroma among 18 aromatic rice varieties was low. In conclusion, the KOH leaf method proved to be a rapid and accurate method to discriminate aromatic rice from non-aromatic rice.
