The Perfume Bee

The July 6, 2007 episode of WYNC’s The Leonard Lopate Show features a good interview with two prominent scientists in the world of scent. Dr. Luca Turin is an employee of Flexitral and author of The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell. Dr. Charles Wysocki is a member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Side note: I remember Dr. Wysocki from my days working as a lab technician at Monell in the mid-1980s. Small world!)

The interview lasts about 35 minutes and provides some good scientific understanding of the sense of smell. I take issue, however, with one of Dr. Turin’s comments. A caller to the radio showed asked how much credence one should give to aromatherapy. Dr. Turin’s reply: “None.”

Later, Dr. Turin had a more positive opinion while discussing Egyptian perfumers of the distant past. He explained that the ancient Egyptians had complex perfume recipes which, when recreated today, are said to smell wonderful.

Here is the link to the interview:

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Warning: The following post contains somewhat graphic material. Do not read while dining…

The current issue of Nature has a fascinating article about the alleged relics of St. Joan of Arc and two of the leading ‘noses’ in the perfume industry. In a description that reads like an episode of CSI, perfumers Sylvaine Delacourte (Guerlain) and Jean-Michel Duriez (Jean Patou) were invited by forensic scientist Philippe Charlier, to sniff the supposed remains of St. Joan of Arc.

Joan was burned at the stake in Rouen, Normandy, in 1431. The relics were discovered in a jar in the attic of a Pais phramacy in 1867, with the inscription “Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans”.

Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré′ Hospital in Garches, near Paris, began studying the relics last year. He and his colleagues examined the remains (a charred-looking human rib, chunks of apparently carbonized wood, a 15-cm piece of linen, and a cat femur — which was consistent with the medieval habit of throwing black cats on the the pyre of supposed witches) using a battery of techniques. These included infrared and atomic-emission spectrometry, electron microscopy, pollen analysis and, amazingly, the help of perfumers.

Perfumers Durie and Delacourte were given these relics and nine other samples of bone and hair from Charlier’s lab without being told what the samples were. They were not allowed to discuss their findings with each other. Both perfumers smelled ‘vanilla’ in the samples from the relics. As it turns out, vanilla is inconsistent with cremation.

“Vanillin is produced during decomposition of a body,” says Charlier. “You would find it in a mummy, but not in someone who was burnt.”

In other words, the remains were most likely of a mummy origin, not from a cremated body. Other evidence supporting this claim quickly accumulated, thereby establishing the relics of St. Joan of Arc as fraudulent. The Church, according to Charlier, is ready to accept the results.

Let’s hear it for perfume forensics!

To read the entire article, please click here.

image source: Nature

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Practice makes perfect, or so the saying goes. Many of us have found this to be the case when learning to play a musical instrument, learning a new sport, or attempting any number of new activities. Repetition, training and practice improve our skills in most areas of our lives. And yet, for some reason the thought of improving our ability to distinguish various scents is rarely considered or discussed.

Fortunately, this does not have to be the case. Even as wine connoisseurs are able to refine their sense of taste, so, to, can perfumers refine their sense of smell. And the good news for the rest of us is that such olfactory refinement is not limited to master perfumers (or “noses”). We are all “trainable” in terms of our ability to improve our scent recognition and memory. Granted, there are those with greater natural talents in this area, even as there are those people who are born with perfect pitch. But there is hope that we each possess the capacity to greatly improve our olfactory sense and, subsequently, our enjoyment of fine perfume.

Interestingly, some experts are of the opinion that scent training should be a regular part of a child’s education. They believe olfactory training should begin at an early age, when other skills are developing. For instance, renowned perfumer Christophe Laudamiel (co-creator with Cristoph Hornetz on the Thierry Mugler Parfums’ ‘Le Coffret’ for the movie, “Perfume, The Story of a Murderer”) has teamed up with the Fragrance Foundation to develop a program that he hopes will bring scent awareness training to school-aged children in all public schools. In a recent Boston Globe article, Laudamiel states,

We are now going into phase two of the program to find out what would be appropriate for the curriculum of schools….This is a time when kids are learning a new language or starting music or drawing. Scent is just another sense that they have to awaken.

Laudamiel hopes that olfactory training will enable people to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the fine notes in a perfume. He compares perfumery to music, architecture and painting. Understanding the notes and instruments involved with a symphony orchestra make going to a concert an even more enjoyable experience. Similarly, he believes scent education will enhance an individual’s appreciation for fine fragrances.

I agree wholeheartedly with Laudamiel’s assessment of our need for scent training. In light of that, I am embarking on my own personal “scent training” program. I have a lot to learn, and I will share the details and my progress in future posts. Stay tuned, and meanwhile, I’d love to hear about your own experiences with “learning how to smell.”

For further reading about Christian Laudamiel and his views on olfactory training, please see this 2004 interview as well as this recent interview on Basenotes.

photo source: National Science Teachers Association (2004)

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