Puberty modifications nearly all the things. Our bodies get taller, muscle tissues get stronger — and infrequently, physique odor turns into extra pungent. Now, scientists have recognized a few of the compounds that give youngsters their pure aroma.
In contrast to that of infants and toddlers, teenage physique odor has two smelly steroids and better ranges of carboxylic acids, researchers report March 21 in Communications Chemistry. These chemical substances type when micro organism break down armpit sweat and sebum, the oily secretions that hold our pores and skin moist, and should contribute to the noticeable modifications in BO all through puberty.
“Physique odor modifications by means of improvement,” says chemist Helene Loos of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany. “There’s a actually nice range of various odor compounds which can be current in physique odors.”
Loos and colleagues collected physique odor samples from 18 teenagers age 14 to 18 and 18 younger kids age 0 to three who had slept with cotton pads below their arms for an evening. Separating the physique odor into particular person elements revealed that younger kids and teenagers have over 40 compounds in widespread.
Whereas some courses of chemical substances confirmed no distinction between age teams, the scents of carboxylic acids have been extra prevalent in teenagers. These compounds have been a mixture of nice scents, described by a panel skilled to guage olfactory cues as fruity, soapy or grassy, and less-appealing ones that smelled tacky, musty or goatlike.
Researchers additionally recognized two steroids current solely within the teenagers’ physique odor. One, known as 5α-androst-16-en-3-one, smells of sweat, urine and musk. The opposite, known as 5α-androst-16-en-3α-ol, smells of musk and sandalwood.
A couple of elements of scented merchandise additionally turned up, regardless of individuals avoiding deodorant and utilizing unscented physique wash and detergent for 2 days previous to the research.
Notably, some compounds identified to contribute to robust physique odor weren’t detected, says biochemist Andreas Natsch of Givaudan, a perfume and taste producer headquartered in Vernier, Switzerland. These chemical substances may require completely different detection strategies, or they could present up extra after exercising or working up a sweat (SN: 7/13/21).
In future work, Loos hopes to search for these compounds and to check how BO modifications at different phases of improvement (SN: 5/30/12).
