Determination of flavour strength in alliums (onion and garlic).

An oxidimetric method of determination of the volatile oil in small samples of onion and garlic has been developed based on the reaction between the volatile oil and chloramine-T in acid medium. The method consists of the oxidation of the steam distillate of onion/garlic samples (about 25 g onion or 5 g garlic) calculating the chloramine-T consumption and the % oil content. The consumption of N chloramine-T/g of onion and garlic was found to be 84 and 90 ml resp.