A new way to describe a fragrance

PERFUMES have colourful descriptions, such as floral or musky, to give buyers an inkling of their aromas. But perfumers often disagree about how to describe a particular fragrance, so the classification of scents is inconsistent. Now researchers have revealed a new system to bring some order to this odoriferous business.

One reason why people describe smells differently is a weakness of the nose. Although the human sense of smell is keen, it is hampered by a lack of precision. When presented with hundreds of odours, the nose can simultaneously distinguish only a few. Keenly aware of these problems, Alirio Rodrigues at the University of Porto in Portugal and his colleagues compiled an extensive list of scent descriptions from the existing databases used by the perfume industry. They found that eight general terms for scents (citrus, floral, green, fruity, herbaceous, musk, oriental and woody) could work as families to which more than 2,000 specific scents could be assigned. The team then plotted these eight families onto a map that resembled the plots on a radar screen. …