Determination of the Principal Volatile Compounds of Turkish Raki

ABSTRACT J. Inst. Brew. 113(3), 302–309, 2007 Turkish Raki is a type of traditional aniseed spirit produced in different areas of Turkey. The amounts and the repartition of the alcoholic fermentation products (fusel alcohols, esters, and alde-hydes) are mainly responsible for the flavours and quality of the spirit. Previous studies have been carried out on the quantifica-tion of the volatiles of the different aniseed spirits using GC and GC-MS. In this study of 20 different commercial brands of bottled Raki and 5 homemade Turkish Raki products, the major volatiles and methanol were determined using direct injection with GC-MS. SPME extraction was also used as a confirmation method for the separation of Raki volatiles. Eight different sub-stances were successfully identified using SPME extraction. The results indicated that some homemade Turkish Raki products from the different regions contained slightly higher concentra-tions of the most studied compounds. The toxic compound methanol was detected only at a level far below the acceptable legal limit.