Raw Virginia peanuts were evaluated from volatiles obtained by a modified direct gas chromatographic procedure. The volatiles were eluted and absorbed onto a Tenax-MPE column which was at ambient temperatures. After the peanut sample was removed, the column was temperature programmed for the analysis. The combined peak areas of methanol, acetaldehyde, ethanol, and the acetone group (pentane, 2-propano1, propanal, and acetone) usually comprised about 80% of the total volatile peak area. Sensory data and their correlation with volatile profiles are reported.Several procedures have been used to obtain volatiles from peanuts in an attempt to evaluate peanut quality (1-5). Pattee and co-workers (3) used a procedure in which raw peanuts were slurried with water in a blender and the volatiles (present or produced) were separated, and analyzed the head space gases by gas chromatography (GC). They found that methanol, acetaldehyde, ethanol, pentane, acetone, pentanal, and hexanal constituted most of the volatiles. In most cases pentane was the largest component. They indicated that both pentane and hexanal appear to be related to lipoxidase activity.Brown and co-workers (5) used a procedure in which the raw peanuts were ground for one min in a blender; 740 mg of this sample was stripped at 130 with the carrier gas (N2) onto the top of the cold (about 30 C) GC column for 23 minutes. After the sample was removed, the GC column was temperature programmed to 190 C to determine the volatiles. Very little pentane was found, but a few major and minor components were found in the volatile profile. This procedure has the advantage of determining the volatile profile directly from the ground sample and it also minimizes artifacts caused from solvent extraction or chemical modifications except for those that may occur by heating in the inlet. The procedure requires 'Research Chemist, Food Technologist, and Research Chemist, respectively,