The Coconut-Like Flavor Defect of Milk Fat. I. Isolation of the Flavor Compound from Butter Oil and its Identification as δ-Decalactone

Abstract

The coconut-like off-flavor compound, which develops in butter oil during storage or when butter oil has been heated, was isolated and identified as δ-decalactone (the lactone of 5-hydroxy decanoic acid). Infrared spectroscopy and paper chromatography were used in establishing the flavor compound's coidentity with δ-decalactone. Paper chromatographic methods are presented whereby a homologous series of gamma lactones from nonalactone to dodecalactone can be resolved. Evidence that a similar series of delta lactones can be separated in a like manner was obtained. © 1956, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.