In this study fermentation of fresh ascidian was attempted to widen the utility of ascidian. Fresh deshelled and sliced ascidians were fermented for 90days at $25^{\circ}C$ with different salt contents of 5, 10, 15 and $20\%$ (w/w) and at $5^{\circ}C$...
In this study fermentation of fresh ascidian was attempted to widen the utility of ascidian. Fresh deshelled and sliced ascidians were fermented for 90days at $25^{\circ}C$ with different salt contents of 5, 10, 15 and $20\%$ (w/w) and at $5^{\circ}C$ with 5 and $10\%$ salt. Changes of such components during fermentation as free amino acids, nucleotides and the related compounds, volatile basic nitrogen(VBN), trimethyl amine(TMA), amino nitrogen and total creatinine were determined. VBN increased rapidly after 30days of fermentation at $25^{\circ}C$ while slowly in cases of fermentation at $5^{\circ}C$ and with high salt concentration. Amino nitrogen and the total creatinine also increased gradually until 45 days and 30days of fermentation, respectively, hereafter tended to decrease. ATP and ADP seemed to degrade rapidly in fresh ascidian post harvest and AMP, IMP and inosine also degraded down to hypoxanthine during fermentation. After 45days of fermentation, in the free amino acid composition of fermented ascidian were taurine, proline, glutamic acid, histidine, lysine, alanine and valine in order. The amino acids known as sweetner like prolline, lysine, alanine and glycine were in increased in fermented ascidian. The result of sensory evaluation of fermented ascidian pretreated with acid or sulfite solution showed that the peculiar taste and flavor of ascidian remained without browning for 45days fermentation at $5^{\circ}C$.