Salted Radish Root Biology during Food Processing

Abstract

White radish root (daikon) is an important vegetable in Japanese food culture and has spawned the development of various cooking and processing methods. takuan-zuke is the major processed food derived from daikon. Takuan-zuke is prepared by the dehydration of the root using a salt-press or a weighted stone, or by sun-drying, followed by salt-aging using salt or salted rice bran. The color of takuan-zuke changes to yellow during salt-aging. We determined the effects of dehydration and salt-aging on the metabolism of daikon using takuan-zuke. In the yellowing reaction, the generation of daikon isothiocyanate was significant, requiring a temperature of ≥10°C and pH ≥5. The color change of the sun-dried takuan-zuke was the most significant. Moreover, we investigated the nutritional characteristics of takuan-zuke. In the sun-dried daikon, metabolism progressed for 3 weeks during drying, with increase in the concentrations of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and proline as well as drying stress metabolites. In the salt-pressed daikon, GABA concentrations temporarily increased due to osmotic stress but then decreased on metabolic inhibition by salt permeation. In addition, no change in the concentration of proline was observed under salt-press conditions. The results showed a marked difference between the stress response of the living and processed root