Fragrance and perfume

[Michaelangelica]

Is it a rosato? A lemato?

June 25 2007 at 01:39AM

Paris - Israeli researchers say they have genetically engineered tomatoes to give hints of lemon and rose aromas that have done well in testing on volunteers.

The transgenic tomato includes a gene from a variety of lemon basil, Ocimum basilicum, that produces an aroma-making enzyme called geraniol synthase, Efraim Lewinsohn of Newe Yaar Research Centre and colleagues report.

A panel of 82 people have tested the experimental fruit against unmodified counterparts.

Nearly all of them were able to detect novel aromas, which the testers variously described as "perfume", "rose", "geranium" and "lemongrass".

When put to the taste, the GM tomatoes were preferred by 49 members of the panel, while 29 preferred unmodified tomatoes and four expressed no preference.

The GM tomatoes have only a light red colour, though, because they have only half as much lycopene as conventional tomatoes. In addition to conferring a bright blush to tomatoes, lycopene is an antioxidant, a compound credited with health-giving qualities.

Offsetting the low levels of lycopene are higher levels of compounds called volatile terpenoids, which possess antimicroial, pesticidal and antifungal qualities, so the GM tomato may have longer shelf life and need less pesticide to grow, Lewinsohn contends.

The team believes that other crops and flowers that, like tomatoes, produce carotenoids, could also be engineered to change their smell and taste.

The first genetically-modified tomato, the so-called FlavrSavr, hit the US market in 1994.
.. . .
The Israeli paper is published online on Sunday by Nature Biotechnology, part of the Nature group of science journals. - Sapa-AFP

IOL: Is it a rosato? A lemato?

[Michaelangelica]

Shoppers smelling a bargain
Article from: The Daily Telegraph
By Samantha Williams

June 30, 2007 12:00am

FAR from fearing being sold a lemon, it appears consumers are compelled to buy more if shopkeepers infuse their stores with a citrus scent.

Shoppers smelling a bargain | The Daily Telegraph

I think this is being done more and more with the synthetic smell of fresh baked bread in bakeries, etc

[Michaelangelica]

Sex on the brain? No, in the nose
Monday, 6 August 2007
Agençe France-Presse
Sex on the brain? No, in the nose

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* New culprit for sluggish sperm

PARIS: The difference between male and female sexual behaviour may be explained, in mice at least, by a tiny organ in the nose rather than gender-specific brain circuitry.

So say investigators in the U.S., who admit to being stunned by the finding and the implications for the understanding of sexuality.

In a study published yesterday in the British journal Nature, the team engineered female lab mice so that the rodents lacked a gene called TRPC2, effectively short-circuiting the so-called vomeronasal organ. This tiny organ in the nose is packed with receptor cells that pick up pheromones – scents that can trigger behaviour such as aggression or sexual responses in many mammals.

Sexually rampant females

To the scientists' surprise, the mutant female mice behaved like sexually rampant males. They sniffed and ran after females, flounced their pelvises, mounted and thrust at male mice, issuing ultrasonic squeaks of the kind that males emit when mating.

"Was it good for you too"?
Gender bender: One female mutant mouse – with a genetic mutation that affects the function of the vomeronasal organ – acts like a male by attempting mount another.
Image: Tali Kimc

[Michaelangelica]

Our poor fragrance vocabulary.
SMELL
perfumed
lilac earthy stinking fetid loamy
lemon scent odor fragrance sweaty B.O. sharp
rose lime rotten biting pungent musty
plastic acrid flowery fishy mildewed spicy
acid moldy doggy nauseating redolent skunky
dirty sweet tart minty moist putrid
sour fresh musty spoiled sharp pong smoky acrid rotten egg,
Descriptive words
any other suggestions?

[Michaelangelica]

Mind Control -- Through Your Nose
Within a broader movement known as "full-sensory branding," the practice of scent marketing -- using specially formulated fragrances to make you buy unrelated products and services -- is on the rise. Smell, it is said, has an unrivaled power to evoke emotion, and this power can be harnessed to boost sales.

Hundreds of companies already set your mood with piped-in aromas, in everything from real estate show rooms to shoe stores. Advertising Age named the practice one of the top 10 trends to watch in 2007. ScentAir, a producer of aroma-marketing systems, stated their business quadrupled between 2005 and 2006.

But why use scent?

Because companies have realized that to stay competitive, and be successful in an advertisement-crammed world where consumers are bombarded with sights and sounds, other avenues must be tapped. "Fragrance is the only thing left," says Harald Vogt, founder of the Scent Marketing Institute. "You cannot turn off your nose. You have to breathe."

So, with between $50 million to $80 million being spent on scent marketing in 2006 alone, does it really work?

Mind Control -- Through Your Nose - Articles
New York Times September 9, 2007

[Michaelangelica]

How Basil Gets Its Zing

Science Daily — The blend of aromatic essential oils that gives fresh basil leaves their characteristic warm and sweet aroma is well characterized but not much is known about the enzymatic machinery manufacturing the odiferous mix. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Michigan followed their noses and solved part of the molecular puzzle.

ScienceDaily: How Basil Gets Its Zing


The characteristic scent of the basil plant is due to a volatile compound called eugenol (shown in yellow), which is produced by the basil enzyme, eugenol synthase (shown in purple). Obtaining the three-dimensional structure of eugenol synthase illuminated the inner workings of the enzyme and paves the way for understanding the evolution of relatives throughout the plant kingdom and the future engineering of economically vital plant properties, including floral scent and flavor. (Credit: Image courtesy of Dr. Gordon V. Louie, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Howard Hughes Medical Institute)

[Michaelangelica]

Plants enjoy hot, smelly sex in the tropics

By Stephen Pincock for ABC Science Online

Posted Fri Oct 5, 2007 11:27pm AEST

It is a relationship characterised by rejection, deceit and too much perfume. An affair played out not on the pages of a gossip magazine, but among Australian insects and plants.

Researchers have discovered that an ancient plant species that grows in south-east Queensland uses its natural scent to manipulate the insects it relies on for pollination.

The plant, called Macrozamia lucida, is a cycad, an ancient group containing species that look part-fern, part-palm, but are in fact related to neither.

Cycads have existed for hundreds of millions of years, since the Permian era, and seem to have an ancient pollination method to match.

This particular Australian cycad can reproduce only with the help of tiny insects called thrips, which in turn rely on cycad pollen for food.

Associate Professor Gimme Walter from the University of Queensland, co-author of a report in today's issue of the journal Science, says the relationship is "very intimate".

"If you take one out of the equation, the other can't manage," he said.

The relationship starts to get complicated around October each year, when the cycads start growing cones to begin their reproductive cycle.

Each plant contains either pollen-containing male cones or female cones, which contain seeds.

Thrips generally set up home among the scales of the male cones. But for pollination, the male plant needs a way to encourage them to make their way to a female.

"It seems that the cycad's got to convince the insect to leave the male cones at some time, and transmit the pollen around," Assoc Prof Walter says.

Sex in the afternoon

In the article, he and his colleagues explain how this happens. It begins between 11am and 3pm each day, when the plants use a stockpile of sugars, starch and fats to heat their cones to around 12 degrees Celsius above air temperature.

"It's quite dramatic, they're hot," Assoc Prof Walter says.

This heating is accompanied by a massive release of scent chemicals from the cones.

In small amounts, their sharp, pungent scent attracts thrips, but repels them at higher concentrations.

Professor Robert Roemer from the University of Utah, a colleague of Assoc Prof Walter, says it is like "a guy with too much aftershave".

MORE AT:-
Plants enjoy hot, smelly sex in the tropics - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Michaelangelica]

NTT to test digital aromatic signs
NTT to test digital aromatic signs ::: Pink Tentacle

[Michaelangelica]

Popcorn's buttery fumes 'dangerous'

October 28, 2007 - 11:24Am

The smell of buttery microwave popcorn can be intoxicating. But can it also be dangerous?

The question took on new significance recently when a doctor alerted federal regulatory agencies that a Colorado man who ate at least two bags every night for several years had "significant lung disease" similar to that seen in some microwave popcorn workers.

The illness - the first suspected case in a consumer - was linked to the man's habit of inhaling fumes from extra-buttery microwave popcorn, which contains the chemical diacetyl. The additive gives foods a buttery taste and has been linked to severe lung disease in some microwave popcorn and flavour plant workers.

Popcorn's buttery fumes 'dangerous' - Breaking News - World - Breaking News

[Michaelangelica]

What is it with popcorn.
a perfumer friend even showed me a pocorn fragrance he made.

Worms Take The Sniff Test To Reveal Sex Differences In Brain
In the experiment at the University of Rochester Medical Center, worms that are hermaphrodites (with characteristics of both females and males) went for the buttery smell, while the males -- the other of the two sexes in these worms -- opted for the scent of fresh vegetables.

But when researchers tricked a few nerve cells in hermaphrodites into sensing that they were in a male worm, suddenly they too preferred the smell of fresh vegetables.

Bizare research?
BUT this is what they say:-

While the olfactory likes and dislikes of the tiny roundworm known as C. elegans is the stuff of distinctive cocktail conversation, trivia is the furthest thing on the minds of Rochester scientists who did the study, which is being published in the Nov. 6 issue of Current Biology.

Geneticist Douglas Portman, Ph.D., and graduate student KyungHwa Lee ultimately hope to understand gender differences in diseases like autism, depression, and attention-deficit disorder. Many more boys than girls are diagnosed with ADD and autism, and many more girls than boys are diagnosed with depression. While proposed explanations abound, few scientists debate the notion that the brains of the sexes are in some ways fundamentally different.

The experiments with humble C. elegans, nearly invisible to the naked eye and common in soil worldwide, make up one way that scientists are exploring the roots of a host of conditions that affect the human brain. The research project was funded by Autism Speaks, an organization dedicated to autism awareness and research.

Smell You Later: Scientists Reveal How Mice Recognize Each Other

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2007) — Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that mice rely on a special set of proteins to recognise each other.
. . .
"These major urinary proteins (MUPs) act like a 'chemical barcode' of individual identity -- each individual has a slightly different set of proteins, allowing each animal to be easily recognised.
. . .
even humans, with their relatively poor sense of smell, tend to like the odor of individuals that have different MHC genes from their own,

Smell You Later: Scientists Reveal How Mice Recognize Each Other

Sorry could not resit this one

Why Dinosaurs Had 'Fowl' Breath

Why Dinosaurs Had 'Fowl' Breath