Preliminary Investigation on the Relationship between Fluorescence Fingerprint and Quality of Awamori

Abstract

Fluorescence fingerprints (FF) of Awamori and standard reagents of 4-vinylguaiacol (4-VG) and vanillin were measured. FFs of Awamori samples had three fluorescence peaks at excitation/emission wavelengths of 254.3/290.4, 254.3/338.0 and 296.2/340.3nm. Principal component (PC) analysis of FF data revealed that young and aged samples were clearly separated on a PC score plot. Comparison of peak positions of FFs of Awamori samples, standard reagents and PC loadings revealed that these peaks could be classified into six groups. Among these, two groups were found to be derived from 4-VG fluorescence, while other two groups were related to vanillin.