Aroma Composition of Aniseed and Aniseed-Flavored Beverages

AbstractPimpinella anisum L. is an aromatic plant that has been used in the human diet for thousands of years in the flavoring of food and alcoholic beverages, as well as in pharmacy, especially in the Mediterranean basin. The most important feature of aniseed is that it has an essential oil containing very special and strong aroma compounds. Aniseed aroma components are extracted mainly through hydro-distillation or steam-distillation before the GC-MS technique is applied. Aroma components of the aniseed and aniseed flavored alcoholic beverages can be mainly classified under the monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and phenylpropanoids groups. The majority of aniseed oil consists of transanethol, estragol, γ-himachalene, α-zingiberene, and p-anisaldehyde, which all have distinct sweet, mastic, anise, herbal, and bitter almond aromas. Trace aroma compounds of aniseed include α-pinene, limonene, p-cymene, γ-terpinene, α-terpinene, cis-anethole, methyl eugenol, germacrene-D, and β-bisabolen, which have a significant effect on the final product. Aniseed or aniseed flavor is applied in the production of a variety of distilled alcoholic beverages throughout the world. Notable ones include rakı in Türkiye, ouzo and tsipouro in Greece, janezevec in Slovenia, pastis in France, sambuca in Italy, cazalla, pacharán, and chinchon in Spain, and arak in Lebanon and Syria. Transanethole, estragole, cis-anethole, himachelene, p-anisaldehyde, and linalool are the dominant aroma compounds in all anise-flavored alcoholic beverages, which have characteristics that can be described as spicy, anise, mastic, sweet, and resinous odors.KeywordsAniseedAniseed-flavored beveragesAromaRakıOuzoPastisSambucaAniseGC/MSTransanethole