Hey Guys!
So today I’m going to do a bit of a boring post and talk about some of the compounds I’m working with in the lab. I briefly touched on them last week but I thought it might be cool to learn a bit more about them and maybe talk about some other interesting smells.
The compounds I’m look at the moment are all terpene compounds as I mentioned last week. They are compounds made up of isoprene units. Nature joins them together in different ways to make up a range of compounds.
Why am I looking at terpene compounds? Well, I’m reacting them with my P450 enzyme (that I discussed in my first post) to see where it reacts. This can change the smell of the compound and can be used to make perfumes and other fragrance items.
The first compounds I used were alpha-ionone, beta-ionone and beta-damascone. These compounds are present in flowers and really do smell lovely. They are known as rose ketones as they contain a ketone functional group (the C=O) and are present in roses. They are also found in violets in relatively small amounts but they have a very strong smell. As a result of this they make up most of the smell in roses and violets.
Camphor is another compound and is the main ingredient in vicks vaporub. It gives a cooling sensation similar to menthol when absorbed through the skin.
Fenchone is similar to camphor. It is found in absinthe and the essential oil of fennel. It smells similar to camphor but is still used in perfumes and other fragrance items.
1,8-Cineole is known as Eucalyptol and you may be surprised to learn that it is the main compound present in Eucalyptus oil. However, it is also present in food flavourings as it has a pleasantly spicy flavour.
So how do we smell all these different compounds? There are some neurons in the back of your nose which tell your brain what you are smelling. The compound that smells binds to these neurons and that sends a message to the brain about what you are smelling. Different shaped compounds produce the different smells by binding to the neurons in a different orientation. Generally, similar functional groups produce similar smells. Compounds with ketones smell like flowers and compounds with esters smell like fruits.
If you enjoyed this post and you want to read more about this topic, you could read this interesting series of posts on the smells in vegemite (part 1, part 2, part 3). You would be amazed at how many smells go into vegemite.
I have some cool posts planned for the next few weeks so keep reading!
Remember I post every Saturday.
Emma