Production of Off-Odor Volatiles from Liposome-Containing Amino Acid Homopolymers by Irradiation

Irradiation not only generated many new volatiles but also destroyed some volatiles already present in nonirradiated amino acid homopolymer-in-liposome systems. The amounts of some volatiles greatly increased, but others significantly decreased after irradiation. The majority of newly generated and increased volatiles by irradiation were sulfur compounds, indicating that sulfur amino acids are the most susceptible to changes by irradiation. More than one site in amino acid side chains was labile to free radical attack, and many volatiles were produced by the secondary chemical reactions after the primary radiolytic degradation of side chains. Although nonirradiated samples also produced some sulfury notes, irradiated samples produced much a stronger and astringent sulfury odor than nonirradiated samples.