Why do we like so much the smell of roses: The recipe for the perfect flower

The rose is the most cultivated ornamental plant in the world, and one of the reasons is that its fragrance is highly pleasant to humans. This raises the question of which volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by flowers are involved in a rose odor-induced positive emotional response. Here, we invited participants to smell and rate the perceptual characteristics of roses whose VOCs were quantified. We revealed that (1) the more rose-specific the flower perception, the more pleasant the smell and (2) the rosy perception is driven by ionones and to a lesser extent by oxylipins while pleasantness by balanced proportion in the mixture of ionones, oxylipins, and 2-phenylethanol and derivatives. In the mixture, the proportion of some compounds, such as aliphatics and phenolic methyl esters, impact negatively the rose scent. Thus, the pleasure that roses bring to humans could be explained by the non-conscious perception of this unique mixture of compounds.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
iScience
Published
2024-12-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.111635
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Plant and animal studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.03

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Why do we like so much the smell of roses: The recipe for the perfect flower

Nathalie Mandairon, Aurélie Bony, Benoît Boachon, Jean‐Claude Caissard et al.
1 citations
iScience
Plant and animal studies
1.03
article

Why do we like so much the smell of roses: The recipe for the perfect flower

Nathalie Mandairon, Aurélie Bony, Benoît Boachon, Jean‐Claude Caissard, Sylvie Baudino, Marylou Mantel, Menan Hervé, Moustafa Bensafi, Inès Adrar, Marc Thévenet, Jules Dejou
article en
1 citations

Abstract

The rose is the most cultivated ornamental plant in the world, and one of the reasons is that its fragrance is highly pleasant to humans. This raises the question of which volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by flowers are involved in a rose odor-induced positive emotional response. Here, we invited participants to smell and rate the perceptual characteristics of roses whose VOCs were quantified. We revealed that (1) the more rose-specific the flower perception, the more pleasant the smell and (2) the rosy perception is driven by ionones and to a lesser extent by oxylipins while pleasantness by balanced proportion in the mixture of ionones, oxylipins, and 2-phenylethanol and derivatives. In the mixture, the proportion of some compounds, such as aliphatics and phenolic methyl esters, impact negatively the rose scent. Thus, the pleasure that roses bring to humans could be explained by the non-conscious perception of this unique mixture of compounds.

iScienceVol. 28(2)
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Inserm (FR), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (FR), Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes (FR), Institut des Sciences Cognitives (FR), L'Institut Agro (FR), Université Jean Monnet (FR)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Plant and animal studies
1.03
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.