Nuruk, a Korean fermentation starter for Makgeolli, contains a variety of microflora according to province and natural environment. However, the metabolites profiles in traditional Korean Nuruk were not defined yet. In this study, Nuruk were prepared with 20 different fungi originated from Gangwon province (Rhizomucor variabilis, Lichtheimia corymbifera, and Aspergillus species) and their metabolites were profiled / compared with commercial strains (Aspergillus kawachii) through metabolomics analysis. Metabolites were extracted with solvent mixture (Isopropanol: Methanol: Distilled water) and put into MS spectrometry analysis. After processing of full mass spectra data from LC-MS/MS, the characteristics of each strain were compared and analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis such as hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA).Interestingly, strain specific classification was observed by HCA and PCA among samples and significant differences were also indicated from commercial strain Aspergillus kawachii. As a results, 26 metabolites were successfully screened with a validity from a total of 189 metabolites by using of VIP plot through OPLS-DA. These results suggested the uniqueness of Korean traditional home brewed liquor compared to commercial liquor and could be useful information for Korean brewing industry.

• Gyoung-Deuck Kim(Department of Food Science and Technology, Chung-Ang University)
• Cheon-Seok Park(Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, KyungHee University)
• Joong-Hyuck Auh(Department of Food Science and Technology, Chung-Ang University)