Forget sugar and spice and all things nice, women smell of Onions and men smell of Cheese – or at least their armpits do – according to Scientists at Firmenich, a company in Switzerland that researches flavours and smells for the food and perfume industry.

The researchers took armpit sweat samples from 24 men and 25 women after they had spent time in a sauna or ridden an exercise bike for 15 minutes.

Then, after the samples had been analysed, the team found that those from women contained ten times as much of an odourless sulphur-containing compound, which when mixed with bacteria commonly found in the armpit, was transformed into a thiol – a previously discovered odour from armpits that is similar to onion.

The sweat of men was different, since it had relatively high levels of an odourless fatty acid which turned into a cheesy odour when exposed to the same types of bacteria.

Christian Starkenmann, whose team’s results appear in Chemical Senses said:

Men smell of cheese, and women of grapefruit or onion.

Bacterial enzymes turn the otherwise odourless precursor into the malodour. Then, the balance of “oniony” to “cheesy” precursors in women’s sweat made it smell worse than men’s as rated by independent smell assessors.

The team now believe that their research could lead to the development of new ingredients for deodorants that are aimed specifically at men or women.

Starkenmann said:

We could make inhibitors that neutralise the precursors, or block the bacterial enzymes that do the conversion.

But, some scientists are sceptical that gender is the deciding factor, and point out that outside of Switzerland people have different diets and genetic backgrounds.

Professor Tim Jacob, who researches the science of smell at Cardiff University, told New Scientist magazine:

Other factors include what you eat, what you wash with, what you wear and what genes you inherit.

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Posted by Jonathan in Biochemistry

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