title: Objective display and discrimination of floral odors from Amorphophallus titanum, bloomed on different dates and at different locations, using an electronic nose.
abstract: As olfactory perceptions vary from person to person, it is difficult to describe smells objectively. In contrast, electronic noses also detect smells with their sensors, but in addition describe those using electronic signals. Here we showed a virtual connection method between a human nose perceptions and electronic nose responses with the smell of standard gases. In this method, Amorphophallus titanum flowers, which emit a strong carrion smell, could objectively be described using an electronic nose, in a way resembling the skill of sommeliers. We could describe the flower smell to be close to that of a mixture of methyl mercaptan and propionic acid, by calculation of the dilution index from electronic resistances. In other words, the smell resembled that of "decayed cabbage, garlic and pungent sour" with possible descriptors. Additionally, we compared the smells of flowers which bloomed on different dates and at different locations and showed the similarity of odor intensities visually, in standard gas categories. We anticipate our assay to be a starting point for a perceptive connection between our noses and electronic noses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of DNA Medicine, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan. kfujioka@jikei.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kouki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujioka
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shirasu
authors.forename: Yoshinobu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Manome
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kakishima
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tominaga
authors.forename: Fumio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shimozono
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwamoto
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Yasuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tomizawa
mesh_terms: D031056:Amorphophallus / Q000737:chemistry*; D032701:Biomimetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003217:Conductometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D035264:Flowers / Q000737:chemistry*; D005740:Gases / Q000032:analysis*; D009666:Nose; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D014159:Transducers; D014584:User-Computer Interface
chemical_list: D005740:Gases