Flavor of Fermented Fish Sauce

Forty-three previously unidentified compounds have been found in Nam-pla fermented fish sauce. This included 8 acids, 10 alcohols, 6 amines, 7 other nitrogen-containing compounds, 4 lactones, 3 carbonyls, and 5 sulfur-containing compounds. The fish sauce was solvent extracted in order to obtain a flavor isolate. This isolate was fractionated into acidic, neutral, and basic fractions via pH adjustment and liquid-liquid extraction in order to facilitate gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. All gas chromatography was done by using fused silica Carbowax 20M capillary columns.