Pheromone can be defined as chemical compounds secreted by living things and enabling living things to communicate with each other. They are also referred to as airborne hormones and are mostly fragrant compounds. In other words, pheromones are secreted to affect the behavior of recipient creatures and can be defined as extra-body hormones.
For example; the queen bee constantly releases pheromones to regulate the hive is activity. Worker bees secrete pheromones when foreign bees threaten the hive.
Mammals have pheromone receptors in their sniffing mucosa. There are many types of pheromones, including alarm phenomena, food trace pheromones, sex pheromones and pheromones that affect behavior or physiology.
From a simple single cell prokaryote to complex multicellular eukaryotes, all living things secrete pheromones.
In some studies, there is information that vertebrates and plants communicate via pheromones. The fact that the sheep finds it is own young among tens of lambs is also related to pheromones. The attraction or thrust between male and female is also explained by pheromones.
For example, androsterone secreted by men is thought to be released in order to look attractive to women. The response of the female to this effect varies according to her menstrual cycle.
Depending on the sensitivity during ovulation, different effects appear on women. At the time of ovulation, androsterone was found to be more pleasant to women.
Perception of Smell
The fragrance is chemical particles, that is, molecules that evaporate from objects. The source of the fragrance, which we perceive as freshly ground coffee, is the volatile fragrance molecules of coffee. The sharpness of the smell created by the intensity of evaporation is directly proportional.
The reason why a fresh cake smells more pronounced is that more fragrance molecules emit than stale cake. Under the influence of heat, scent molecules begin to move faster in the air and can spread over a wide area.
Materials such as stone, iron and glass do not smell as they do not evaporate at room temperature. What gives the smell it is characteristic quality is the structural differences of the molecules. For example, what distinguishes a fresh egg and a rotten egg is that the molecules they emit are different.
Fragrance perception is a complex process that evokes psychological and physiological responses in the central nervous system. Since the fragrance center is close to the amygdala, fragrances are associated with memories and evoke strong emotions.
The amygdala participates in the hedonic or emotional processing of olfactory stimulants. Odor can disrupt our concentration, lower efficiency, wake up symptoms, and increase dissatisfaction for a particular environment in general.
Odor can affect the liking of the person, place, food or products. Memories reminded by scents are stronger than those reminded by cues presented visually or aurally. Fragrance is perceived
according to the period experienced and when it is encountered later, it may have directional effects on behavior. When a boring task is done in a fragrant room, the performance is reduced in subsequent work done in the presence of the same smell.
Humans and animals express their emotional state through changes in body odor. The fragrances of the human body directly affect interpersonal relationships. The odors (pheromones) of the human body are the most important physiological cause of behavior such as mother-baby attachment or selection of partners in adults.
With the help of the smell, mothers can distinguish their children, while babies distinguish their mothers from other women. It seems that the smell of the mother had a calming effect on the babies. Body odor not only improves the mother-baby sensory bond, but also affects the social and emotional development of the child.
Body fragrances also affect people’s choice of friends. Perfumes are used to increase attractiveness. Researchers discovered that while buying perfumes, people choose products that interact well with body odor. The scent of a man is critical for the woman to choose it.
Body odor is a critical stimulus for friend selection as well as a sign of health status. Studies show that people use their sense of smell associated with their immune system to choose their friends.
A smell can cause a distant memory to be recalled. Most fragrance memories usually come from the first decade of human life. Smelly memories are usually more emotional. Returning over time is associated with stronger emotions. It is generally less thought than memories evoked by other clues.
Feeling Odors Usually in the early hours of the day, smells of roses, jasmine and honeysuckle towards evening and night. This is because plants try to attract pollinators such as insects, bats or birds. Plants such as carnivorous pitchers try to attract their food.
Honeysuckle and jasmine use their fragrance to attract plants pollinating insects. Plant odors are designed to be volatile to be perceived by pollinators. The fragrance compounds produced have low molecular weight for their high volatility. The size of the molecule is suitable for detection by the organs of pollinators.
Odor molecules are also affected by the places where the synthesis takes place. The place where the fragrance is produced depends on where the plant wants to attract and direct the pollinator.
Timing
Fragrance production is an energy intensive process. To balance the use of resources, some plants produce fragrance chemicals only at certain times of the day. Jasmine produces fragrance in the evening and night hours when the moths with its pollinators are active.
The type of scent carried by the breeze varies over time. Therefore, it is important to know both the time and how to collect fragrances. Jasmine is used in more than %80 of fragrances in women’s perfumes and more than %30 of men’s fragrances.
What is this Wonderful Smell?
The chemicals we smell in the air are a mixture of volatile organic compounds and low molecular weight lipophilic liquids. Volatile organic compounds include alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters and various other hydrocarbons.
More than 1700 volatile organic compounds belonging to 90 different plant families have been identified. The fragrance mixture of a single flower can contain more than 100 compounds. For example, the intoxicating flowers of Lonicera Japonica, a type of honeysuckle, have more than 150 volatile compounds.
In all flowers, certain fragrance compounds tend to predominate. For example, the most known of the 150 volatile components of the honeysuckle are linalol, (Z) -jason, (Z) -jasmin lactone, methyl jasmonate and methyl epi-jasmonate.
Conscious Use of the Sense of Smell
The sense of smell is often overlooked as a way of marketing products. The conscious and controlled application of fragrance is used by designers, scientists, artists and perfumers. Some applications of fragrances in the environment are applied to raise awareness in casinos, hotels and new cars.
Vanilla scent is used in some cancer centers to help patients cope with the claustrophobic effects of the MR test. Perfume chemistry has long wanted to take advantage of these molecules.
In the design of these perfumes, the idea of pheromones affecting the attraction between the sexes is used. It will be appropriate and effective to use pheromone in new generation perfumes.
Prof. Dr. Nazan Apaydın Demir
Mugla Sitki Kocman University
Cosmetic Products Application and Research Center
