Abstract
Umeshu, a Japanese plum liqueur, is made from Japanese plums, sucrose and distilled liquor, and these materials are fermented for a long time.
We investigated organic acids, sugars and some components in the liqueur. The results were as follows :
1. The amount of nonvolatile acids was more than that of volatile acids.
2. Most part of added sucrose was inverted during the fermentation, and some unidentified sugars were found in the liqueur by thin layer chromatography.
3. As a result of quantitative analysis of the separative organic acids with silica gel column, acetic, formic, aconitic, oxalic, malic, citric acids and several other acids were found in the liqueur. In particular, malic acid and citric acid were found in large quantities.
4. Two of the acids which were not identified immediately were ascertained to be monoethyl citrate and its isomer.
