Fermented cassava: odor active components

Cassava (Manihot esculanta Crantz ), a root crop, occupies a unique position as a staple food crop in the tropics. In Nigeria, the tubers are processed to garri and also fermented in cold water and sieved to give a fermented mass used to prepare cassava fufu. The fermentation of cassava tubers in cold water usually imparts an objectionable odor to the fermented mass and the cooked fufu. The compounds responsible for this order have been isolated from the acidic fraction of fermentation liquor and analyzed by combined gas chromatography an mass spectrometry. The acids identified are butanoic acid, propanoic acid, and acetic acid, butanoic acid being responsible for the objectionable odor.