Abstract
Degumming and refining of crude soybean oil were carried out individually in the laboratory to study the volatile components of both degummed soybean oil, before and after refining, along with the refined soybean oil from commercial unit. Hexanal, nonal, decanal and hendecanal volatiles were found to be responsible for fishy odour. Studies on immersion of soybeans in different ratios of ethyl alcohol: water for 4 weeks showed absence of principal compound with fishy odour in the refined oil prepared from the seeds treated with 50 and 75% ethyl alcohol. In contrast, the oil contained 0.2% compounds with fishy odour, when treated with 100% ethyl alcohol.