Isothiocyanates of cruciferous vegetables exert chemopreventive effect by inducing phase II enzymes, which are involved in the metabolism of foreign chemicals. However, there is no report on the possible chemoprevention by fermented vegetables, kimchis. Since it is known that the formation of isothiocyanates decrease in fermented vegetables, it is expected that kimchi will be less efficient in inducing hepatic glutathione S-transferase(GST, one of phase II enzymes. Despite this, extracts of kimchis still show an ability of inducing hepatic GST activity. Our objective was to examine the possible inducement of hepatic GST activity in mice administered with kimchis. The extract of various kimchis in propylene glycol (5 ml/kg body wt.) was administered to 6 to 8 week old ICR female mice via garvage for 5 days. The change of body weight and liver protein, and hepatic GST activity was examined. Separately, volatile sulfur compounds in extracts were analyzed by GC/MS. The change of body weight or liver protein of extract-treated group was not significantly different from control group. The induction of hepatic GST activity was enhanced significantly (p<0.01) over the control in mice treated with the extract of fresh green onion (1.74-fold for 24g/mice, 1.47-fold for 12g/ mice),turnip(1.50-fold),red cabbage(1.41-fold),leek (1.41-fold) and mustard leaf (1.27-fold). A similar increase of GST activity was observed with the extracts of three kimchis ; green onion kimchi (1.64-fold), turnip kimchi (1.49-fold) and red cabbage kimchi (1.37-fold). GC/MS analyses indicate that while a remarkable decrease in the amount of isothiocyanates such as sulforaphane was observed in kimchi extracts, there was a small decrease in the content of sulfides. These results suggest that like fresh green onion, turnip or red cabbage, the extract of turnip and red cabbage kimchi showed a good inducement of hepatic GST activity, although the content of isothiocyanates such as sulforaphane decreased remarkably. Therefore the GST inducement by these kimchi extracts may be due to sulfur compounds other than sulforaphane.