Sensory Perception of Non-Deuterated and Deuterated Organic Compounds.

ABSTRACT: The chemical background of olfactory perception has been subject of intensive research, but no available model can fully explain the sense of smell. There are also inconsistent results on the role of the isotopology of molecules. In experiments with human subjects it was found that the isotope effect is weak with acetone and D₆ -acetone. In contrast, clear differences were observed in the perception of octanoic acid and D₁₅ -octanoic acid. Furthermore, a trained sniffer dog was initially able to distinguish between these isotopologues of octanoic acid. In chromatographic measurements, the respective deuterated molecule showed weaker interaction with a non-polar liquid phase. Quantum chemical calculations give evidence that deuterated octanoic acid binds more strongly

SUBMITTER: Salthammer T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7839723 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature