Secondary Alcohols in Blue Cheese and Their Relation to Methyl Ketones

Abstract

Neutral noncarbonyl volatiles isolated from Blue cheese were characterized by gas and paper chromatography as being pentanol-2, heptanol-2, and nonanol-2. Results from metabolic studies with Penicillium roqueforti, and from the examination of volatiles produced at different stages in the ripening of Blue cheese, suggest that the secondary alcohols are formed by a reduction of the ketones pentanone-2, heptanone-2, and nonanone-2. The qualitative value of plotting retention times, obtained on two different stationary phases, was extended by a technique which may enable the estimation of boiling points of unknowns within a given class. © 1958, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.