aka Human Body Odor
aka apocrine
bromhidrosis, axillary osmidrosis
aka Is that Me [I
Smell]?
 |
| Body odor network graph |
Sweat doesn't smell, per se; what smells is the
metabolism of skin flora. These are colonies of bacteria that live on your
armpits, but can also be found around the areola, anogenital, and navel
regions.
Kids don't smell the same as adults, because the bacteria
haven't colonized their bodies yet. Old people, it seems, smell different
because they produce a chemical referred to as, simply, "old people
smell" (see below: trans-2-Nonenal).
Below are some aroma compounds produced by the human
body, via either sweat or urine:
Methyl hexanoate
ethereal, pineapple
Methyl octanoate
citurs-like, fruity, green-like
Methyl nonanoate
coconut
Methyl decanoate
oily, fruity, wine-like
all methyl -noates
fatty acid esters; found in human sweat, possibly related
to odor preference mate selection; some share the same chemical formula with
Propyl hexanoate aka propyl caproate, ethyl heptanoate, butyl pentanoate; scent
of propyl hexanoate described as blackberries, pineapple, cheese or wine
4-Hydroxybutanoic
acid lactone
caramel; perhaps related to Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) -
produced as a result of fermentation, and so is found in
small quantities in some beers and wines; structurally related to the ketone
body beta-hydroxybutyrate, although that is technically a carboxylic acid;
perhaps related to diabetes and hangovers
Nonanal
lemon, lime, orange, oily, rose, apple, coconut, grape,
grapefruit, melon, peach, meaty, nutty, vegetable-like, waxy; aka
Nonanaldehyde, pelargonaldehyde; an alkyl aldehyde; produced by the human body
and attracts mosquitos; responsible for the “smell of metal” along w decanal
and the main component Oct-1-en-3-one (1-octen-3-one)
Acetone
ethereal, apple; propanone; active ingredient in nail
polish remover and paint thinner; normally present in blood and urine. People
with diabetes produce it in larger amounts; it is the ketone produced by the
body in the metabolism of fats; produced by the liver whenever the liver has to
produce glucose at a very high rate, such as in diabetes
Vanillic acid
chocolate, creamy, grape, nutty, wine-like
4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic
acid; a dihydroxybenzoic acid derivative; oxidized form of vanillin; found
in the root of Angelica sinensis, and Açaí oil Euterpe oleracea; main natural
phenol in argan oil; found in wine and vinegar; main catechins metabolites found
in humans after consumption of green tea infusions
Butyric acid
cheese; systematic name butanoic acid; found in milk and
as a product of anaerobic fermentation (including in the colon and as body
odor); fishing bait additive, component of vomit, used in stink bombs;
fermentation of butyric acid is also found as a hexyl ester hexyl butyrate in
the oil of Heracleum giganteum (a type of hogweed) and as the octyl ester octyl
butyrate in parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)
Indole
animal-like, chocolate, honey, vanilla, musty, earthy,
butter, cheese, fatty, jasmine, grape, vegetable-like, wine-like; an amine;
aromatic heterocyclic organic compound; produced by bacteria as a degradation
product of the amino acid tryptophan; occurs naturally in human feces and coal
tar; intense fecal odor; flowery smell concentrations; natural jasmine oil
contains around 2.5% of indole
Skatole
Floral; 3-methylindole; belongs to the indole family;
occurs naturally in feces (it is produced from tryptophan in the mammalian
digestive tract) and coal tar; strong fecal odor; flowery smell in low
concentrations; found in orange blossoms, jasmine, and Ziziphus mauritiana;
used by U.S. military in its non-lethal weaponry
Jasmine
floral; shrub of genus Jasminum; chemical constituents
include methyl anthranilate, indole, benzyl alcohol, linalool, and skatole
Fumaric acid
sour; found in fumitory (Fumaria officinalis), bolete
mushrooms (specifically Boletus fomentarius var. pseudo-igniarius), lichen, and
Iceland moss; Human skin naturally produces fumaric acid when exposed to
sunlight; product of the urea cycle; provides sourness; a Trans-Butenedioic
Acid
Lauric acid
fatty; systematically: dodecanoic acid; saturated fatty
acid; faint odor of bay oil or soap; as a component of triglycerides, comprises
about half of the fatty acid content in coconut oil, laurel oil, and in palm
kernel oil; found in human breast milk (6.2% of total fat), cow's milk (2.9%),
and goat's milk (3.1%)
Isovaleric acid
animal-like, cheese; a fatty acid; strong pungent cheesy
or sweaty smell; major component of the cause of unpleasant foot odor, as it is
produced by skin bacteria Staphylococcus epidermidis (which is also present in
several strong cheese types) metabolizing leucine; volatile esters have
pleasing scents; produced by the oxidation of hop resins in beer, where it is
seen as a defect
Phenethyl acetate
balsamic, floral, citrus, fruity, wine-like; Part of the
characteristic odor of Camembert cheese, along w biacetyl (buttery flavoring
for popcorn), 3-methylbutanal, methional (degradation product of methionine),
1-octen-3-ol and 1-octen-3-one (degradation products of fats), 2-undecanone,
decalactone
trans-2-Nonenal
fatty, waxy; 4-Hydroxynonenal; a,ß-unsaturated
hydroxyalkenal; found throughout animal tissues; found in Clitopilus prunulus,
commonly known as the miller or the sweetbread mushroom; cucumber odor of this
species has been attributed to trans-2-nonenal, which is present at a
concentration of 17 µg per gram of crushed tissue; see 2-Nonenal: an
unsaturated aldehyde; with human body odor alterations during aging, old-person
smell, smell of old books, aged beer and buckwheat
Oleic acid,
natural
fatty; a monosaturated fatty acid; occurs naturally in
various animal and vegetable fats and oils; monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid;
term related to olive, predominantly composed of oleic acid; makes up 59-75% of
pecan oil, 61% of canola oil, 36-67% of peanut oil, 60% of macadamia oil,
20-85% of sunflower oil (the latter in the high oleic variant), 15-20% of grape
seed oil, sea buckthorn oil, and sesame oil, and 14% of poppyseed oil;
constituting 37 to 56% of chicken and turkey fat and 44 to 47% of lard; most
abundant fatty acid in human adipose tissue; emitted by the decaying corpses of
a number of insects to signal removal of dead bodies
Trimethylamine
solution
oily, fishy, meaty; tertiary amine; strong
"fishy" odor in low concentrations and an ammonia-like odor at higher
concentrations; Trimethylaminuria is a genetic disorder in which the body is
unable to metabolize trimethylamine from food sources, Patients develop a
characteristic fish odour of their sweat, urine, and breath after the
consumption of choline-rich foods
p-Cresol
medicinal; major component in pig odor, human sweat;
traditionally extracted from coal tar
trans-3-Methyl-2-hexenoic
acid
(TMHA) is an unsaturated short-chain fatty acid that
occurs in sweat secreted by the axillary apocrine glands of Caucasians and some
Asians.[1]
Hexanoic acids such as TMHA have an hircine odor. Of the
fatty acids contributing to Caucasian men's axillary (underarm) odor, TMHA has
the most prominent odor.
*Information taken
from Sigma Aldrich Flavor and Fragrance Catalog, 2013.
**wiki-scraped
description fragments are meant for contextualization/disambiguation only.
***
see this chart
for visualization of the body odor smell network: fusiontables
"The Smell of Ammonia in Your Sweat"
When too much nitrogen is present in your system, your
body depends on the kidneys to process the excess nitrogen. This process
creates urea, which can then be expelled through your urine. However, when
there is too much for the kidneys to even process, then the excess nitrogen is
secreted as ammonia through your sweat. When you exercise and sweat at a
greater rate than normal, enough ammonia escapes for you to actually smell it…(or
when your kidneys are under stress, thus processing less, and sending more
through as sweat?).
