Effects of tarragon essential oil on some characteristics of frankfurter type sausages

Tarragon (Artemisia dracunlus) essential oil was obtained from fresh leaves by hydrodistillation. The isolated essential oil was added to frankfurter type sausages at a concentration of 0.1% (v/w). Samples without the essential oil were used as control. The effects of the addition of the tarragon essential oil on the sensory properties, such as odor, color intensity, flavor, spiciness, hardness and overall acceptance of the sausages were evaluated using a hedonic scale and compared to the control. In addition to the hedonic test, a sensory triangle test was conducted. The CIE L*, a* and b* values of the samples were also measured. The addition of the essential oil did not cause any changes in the odor, color intensity, and hardness of the frankfurters. The spiciness of the frankfurter samples added with the essential oil was higher than the control. However, the flavor and overall acceptability of the control samples were higher compared to that of the essential oil containing samples. The difference between the treatments was also significant according to the triangle test. The addition of the tarragon essential oil did not cause any changes in the instrumentally measured color values of the sausages.