Extracts

Spice Extractives
Flavor is a combination of taste, aroma, and texture. The sensations of sweet, piney, sour, bitter, spicy, sulfury, earthy, and pungent are derived from an overall combination of aroma (due to volatile components) and taste (mainly due to nonvolatile components) in a spice. Crunchiness, smoothness, or chewiness, adds to a spice’s overall flavor perception.

Spice extractives, which are highly concentrated forms of spices, contain the volatile and nonvolatile oils that give each spice its characteristic flavor. The volatile portions of spice extractives, also referred to as essential oils, typify the particular aroma of the spice. Most spices owe their distinctive “fresh” character to their essential oil content that generally ranges from 1% to 5% but even goes up to 15% in certain spices. The nonvolatiles include fixed oils, gums, resins, antioxidants, and hydrophilic compounds, and they contribute to the taste or “bite” of a spice.

Certain spices are prized for their bites and coloring, such as black pepper, chile peppers, ginger, saffron, and turmeric. These properties are due to the nonvolatile portions of spices.

Volatile oils contain several chemical components whose amount and proportion give rise to the spices’ characteristic aromas. These can include one, two, or several components. The major chemical components of essential oils are terpene compounds—and depending on its molecular size, monoterpenes, diterpenes, triterpenes, and sesquiterpenes occur. Monoterpenes are the most volatile of these terpenes and constitute the majority of the terpenes in spices, and which give out strong aromas when spice tissues and cells are disintegrated through heating, crushing, slicing, or cutting. They are most concentrated in the mint and parsley family; sesquiterpenes in cinnamon and ginger family. Diterpenes and triterpenes are strong and bitter compounds.

The taste of a spice such as sweet, spicy, sour, or salty, is due to many different chemical components such as esters, phenols, acids, alcohols, chlorides, alkaloids, or sugars. Sweetness is due to esters and sugars; sourness to organic acids (citric, malic, acetic, or lactic); saltiness to cations, chlorides, and citrates; astringency to phenols and tannins; bitterness to alkaloids (caffeine and glycosides); and pungency to the acid-amides, carbonyls, thio ethers, and isothiocyanates.

The ratio of volatiles to nonvolatiles varies among spices causing flavor similarities and differences within a genus and even within a variety. Within the genus Allium, for example, there are differences in flavor among garlic, onions, chives, shallots, and leeks, which differ in this ratio. They vary depending upon the species of spice, its source, environmental growing and harvesting conditions, and storage and preparation methods. Even the distillation techniques can give rise to varying components—through loss of high boiling volatiles, with some components not being extracted or with some undergoing changes.

Nonvolatiles in a spice also vary with variety, origins, environmental growth conditions, stage of maturity, and postharvest conditions. For example, the different chile peppers belonging to the Capsicum group, such as habaneros, cayennes, jalapenos, or poblanos, all give distinct flavor perceptions, depending on the proportion of the different nonvolatiles, the capsaicinoids.

Spice extractives come as natural liquids (which include essential oils, oleoresins, and aquaresins) and dry encapsulated oils (spray-dried powders and dry solubles). Developed from fresh or coarsely ground spices, spice extractives are standardized for color, aroma, and, with some spices, for their antioxidant activity. They are more concentrated than dried or fresh spices and so are used at much lower levels. These extractives provide more consistency than dried spices in prepared foods.

Essential (Volatile) Oils
Essential oils, such as oil of basil, oil of caraway, or oil of black pepper, are produced by grinding, chopping, or crushing the leaf, seed, stem, root, or bark; then cold expressing, dry distilling, or extracting through distillation (using water, steam, or steam and water) and recovering the distillate oil with a solvent. Sometimes the oil is distilled from a whole spice, such as the leaf or flower, or from a broken spice. Depending upon the method of extraction, the nature of the volatiles can differ with the same type of spice.

Essential oils are the major flavoring constituents of a spice. Each essential oil has many chemical components, sometimes even up to fifteen, but the characterizing aroma generally constitutes anywhere from 60% to 80% of the total oil (Table 2). The essential oils are composed of hydrocarbons (terpene derivatives) or terpenes (e.g., α-terpinene, α-pinene, camphene, limonene, phellandrene, myrcene, and sabinene), oxygenated derivatives of hydrocarbons (e.g., linalool, citronellol, geraniol, carveol, menthol, borneol, fenchone, tumerone, and nerol), benzene compounds (alcohols, acids, phenols, esters, and lactones) and nitrogen- or sulfur-containing compounds (indole, hydrogen sulfide, methyl propyl disulfide, and sinapine hydrogen sulfate).

Terpenes usually contribute to the aromatic freshness of a spice and can be termed floral, earthy, piney, sweet, or spicy. The oxygenated derivatives, which include alcohols, esters, acids, aldehydes, and ketones, are the major contributors to the aromatic sensations of a spice. The compounds with benzene structure provide sweet, creamy, and floral notes, while the sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds give the characteristic notes to onion, garlic, mustard, citrus, and floral oils.

Essential oils are soluble in alcohol or ether and are only slightly soluble in water. They provide more potent aromatic effects than the ground spices. Essential oils lose their aroma with age.

Essential oils are very concentrated, about seventy-five to one hundred times more concentrated than the fresh spice. They do not have the complete flavor profile of ground spices, but they are used where a strong aromatic effect is desired. Essential oils are used at a very low level of 0.01% to 0.05% in the finished product. They can be irritating to the skin, toxic to the nervous system if taken internally (by themselves), and can cause allergic reactions and even miscarriages.

Sometimes, alternative oils extracted from a different part of the same spice plant or from another variety are used to enhance or adulterate the more expensive essential oils, but suppliers need to meet the quality specifications that are required from manufacturers for these essential oils.

Oleoresins (Nonvolatiles and Volatiles)
The nonvolatile and volatile flavor components of spices, also referred to as oleo-resins, are produced by grinding or crushing the spices, extracting with a solvent, and then removing the solvent. Oleoresins have the full flavor, aroma, and pungency of fresh or dried spices because they contain the high boiling volatiles and nonvolatiles, including resins and gums that are native to spices.

The nonvolatile components create the heat and or pungency of black pepper, mustard, ginger, and chile peppers. These components can be acid-amides, such as capsaicin in red pepper or piperine in black pepper, isothiocyanates in mustard, carbonyls such as gingerol in ginger, and thioethers such as the diallyl sulfides in garlic or onion.

The different pungent and or heat principles give different sensations—spicy, hot, sharp, biting, or sulfury. The pungent sensation of onion or garlic is sulfury, while that of Jamaican ginger is spicy. Red pepper and white pepper do not contain much aroma because they have very little essential oils, whereas ginger, black pepper, and mustard contribute aromatic sensations with their bites because of a higher content of volatile oils. White pepper has a different bite sensation than black pepper because of their differing proportions of nonvolatiles, piperine, and chavicine.

Five types of capsacinoids have been isolated in chile peppers: capsaicin, hydrocapsaicin, homocapsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin, and dihydrohomocapsaicin, each with its own characterizing “bite” sensation in the mouth. In any particular type of chile pepper, the levels of capsaicinoids vary, causing varying heat levels. Each type of capsacinoid also creates a different perception of heat. Habanero has an initial sharp and violent bite that quickly disappears, leaving behind an aromatic sensation, whereas the cayennes give an initial burn that lingers.

Similarly, the release of heat sensation in mustard is different from wasabi. In wasabi, heat is immediate and in the front of the mouth, while with mustard and horseradish the release is delayed and comes at the back of the mouth, with a shooting sensation to the sinuses. Table 3 details some of the nonvolatiles that contribute pungency to a spice.

Oleoresins come as viscous oils and thick pastes and are more difficult to handle than essential oils. Usually, oleoresins are mixed with a diluent such as propylene glycol, glycerol, or other oils for better handling. An emulsifier is added to make it water soluble, or gum is added to make it into an emulsion for use in beverages, sauces, soups, pickles, and salad dressings.

Oleoresins are used at very low concentrations because they are highly concentrated. They have greater heat stability than essential oils. Oleoresins give more uniform flavor and color with less variability than their ground spice counterparts. They are typically used in high heat applications such as soups, salad dressings, processed meats, and in dry mixes and spice blends.

Aquaresins are water dispersable versions of oleoresins. They are convenient to use because of the ease with which they disperse into water-based foods such as soups, sauces, pickles, or gravies.

Other Spice Extractives
Liquid soluble spices are blends of essential oils or oleoresins that are made for aqueous systems. Fat-based soluble spice is made from essential oil or oleoresin blended with vegetable oil and used for mayonnaise, sauce, or soup. Dry soluble spices, usually used in dry blends, are prepared by dispersing standardized extractives on a carrier such as salt, dextrose, or maltodextrin.

Encapsulated oils are prepared from essential oils and/or standardized oleoresins with gum arabic or modified starch as the encapsulent. These have five to ten times the strength of dried ground spices. Spray-dried flavors are the traditional encapsulated products.

Spray-dried spice flavors or dry soluble spices are created to make liquid spices or extractives more convenient to handle and use in dry applications. They are a dispersion of up to 5% or more of spice oleoresin on a free-flowing carrier such as salt, dextrose, gum arabic, modified starch, or maltodextrin. These encapsulated spice extractives are used for high temperature applications, such as baked or retorted products. The spice flavors are slowly released into the product at the appropriate processing temperatures.

Essential oils or oleoresins are encapsulated to keep the full flavor impact of spices over an extended shelf life. This process grinds and encapsulates the spices in a closed system so no volatile oils escape. They are encapsulated by creating an emulsion with modified starch, dextrose, and maltodextrin or soluble gum (gum acacia) and spray-dried under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. The spice extractives are entrapped in this matrix that protects the flavor from oxidation and high heat and thereby provides an extended shelf life.

Encapsulated oleoresins tend to retain the fresh notes of spices better than the oleoresins. They have no particulates, are completely natural and, like essential oils or oleoresins, have a friendly ingredient label. They are water soluble and allow flavor to be liberated uniformly throughout the food. For application, a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio is used as a replacement for the noncapsulated extractives.

Encapsulation of an extractive renders it wettable and dispersible in water or oil and also decreases the dusting in production. The quantity of extractives that can be dispersed on the carrier varies with the type of carrier and the extractive. It is important to evenly disperse and blend the extractive onto the carrier.

There are new forms of encapsulation, such as coacervation, that show better heat stability and protect spice oils during high-heat cooking or extrusion.

Spice extractives are cost effective compared to fresh or dried spices because they are used at very low concentrations and provide similar or sometimes more acceptable flavor perceptions. One part oleoresin or aquaresin is equivalent to 20 to 40 parts of a ground spice. Also, the color, texture, and flavor of dried and fresh spices are altered through heat and freezing, while extractives have some heat and freezer stability. Extractives are available throughout the year and have standardized flavor and color, whereas the dried or fresh spices fluctuate in availability and quality. Extractives are also free of microbes and other extraneous matter, so they do not cause microbial contamination in the finished product.

Spice extractives are labeled as natural flavors, natural flavorings, or as spice extracts. Extractives are typically used by food developers because of their consistency in flavor and aroma, instant flavor release, uniformity of color, and stability in high-heat applications. By using extractives, the quality and consistency of products from development through production can be better controlled. Finished product quality, uniformity during mixing, and consistency can be maintained from batch to batch during production.

Proper usage levels in the finished product are very important to achieve the right flavor profile and to prevent bitterness. Usage level is generally 0.01% to 0.05% by weight in the final product but varies depending on the type of application. A more uniform dispersion of color and flavor is achieved with the liquid soluble extractives than with dried spices. This creates an acceptable appearance in finished products, unlike dried spices that sometimes mix unevenly in large quantities and leave pockets of flavor and color. When formulating a dry seasoning, oleoresins and essential oils need to be effectively dispersed on a soluble carrier, such as salt, dextrose, maltodextrin, or sugar, before being added with the other ingredients. Otherwise, they will not blend well in the finished product. Overoptimum use of the liquid extractives will create caking of the finished product during storage.

Today, the trend is to capture the varied flavor profiles from spices. For example, researchers are breeding habaneros to obtain their wonderful flavor profiles with less heat. Consumers are using fresh chile peppers, more for their flavor than heat, for example, the anchos and chipotles. Asians and Mexicans have traditionally used chile peppers for flavoring their dishes and have created unique flavors from chile peppers through different preparation techniques. The chile pepper’s flavor is contained in its outer fleshy parts and is intensified when roasted or fried. Chile peppers vary in color, flavor, and texture profiles when they are fresh, dry, smoked, or grilled. As a result of the popularity of these ethnic cuisines, the flavor characteristics of chile peppers and many other spices are becoming a major portion of the profile sought.

Key point


Taste basil, black pepper, cardamom, star anise,
Aroma Clove, ginger, mint, nutmeg, rosemary, cardamom, tarragon, cinnamon, sweet basil,

there are 12 items which all have character in KFC 12 items as Basil is in Both

Correcting for what was (above) a bad snapshot.

I'm 100% confident in 11 Spice & Herbs and MSG as the 12 item in 1956.

I have said this on MORE THEN 1 OCCASION - Vegetable and its items are a very different item and play a number game in the 11 SPICES & HERBS


THIS IS IMPORTANT CHS YES CHS called it SPICES AND HERBS NOT NOT NOT Herbs and Spices

spices in the 1930's had a different meaning then what people are thinking in 2022.


Colonel: "...I knew something about food an' how to handle it; that's where I got my idea of... I know'd to take certain seasonings for sausage, certain seasonings for dressings, and you could take combinations of some of those items an' get another good seasoning... so, that's where I developed my chicken recipe..."