ChemSemBlog

The speaker for this week’s ChemSem was Jeffrey A. Turk from Alma College in central Michigan. He presented on the fragrance industry and the efforts being made to create new fragrances, while at the same time better understanding how the nose works, and how the brain interprets the chemical signals it receives.

The presentation was interesting and Dr. Turk did a good job of starting from basics in explaining the fragrance industry and the procurement of natural supplies. His focus was sandalwood oil which is very expensive. Most of what I learned in this seminar, however, related most directly to understanding of how the nose and brain interact in interpreting chemical smells. Apparently the nose is designed around the interpretation of functional groups on organic molecules. Furthermore, due in part to the mucous that protects the lining of the nasal passages, in order to smell something, the material needs to be hydrophobic, or else the mucous cannot solvate it.

Among the materials brought to demonstrate fragrances, were several vials which Dr. Turk used to give the audience a whiff of the differences one’s nose makes of various substances. One of the most interesting facts was the discussion of anosmia. Evidently, many people lack the ability to smell santolol, and furthermore, in some, once they smell it, for a time they cannot smell it again. Another sample Dr. Turk supplied was the smell from Ambergris which is specifically known for causing acute short term anosmia. This occured in me, in which I could smell it initially, but not upon a second attempt.

Overall, Dr. Turk did an impressive job of explaining something that most people take for granted every day in a more in depth and interesting manner such that it brought to light new and valuable material. The talk did not involve overly in depth reactions, but it did have a useful and engaging amount of chemistry such that the practical applications of more complex subjects (such as stereochemistry and Claisen rearrangements) was given usefulness in the broader scope of analytical and research chemistry.

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