The molecular dimension in perfumery

Abstract

The psychology of perfumery is concerned with a range of issues most of which centre on the perfume user and his or her reactions towards a perfume. Most of the other chapters in this book deal with these behavioural issues. In this chapter we focus on the molecular aspects of perfumery. Through an exploration both of the properties of perfume molecules and also of the mechanisms by which these molecules excite olfactory receptors we will bi prompted to ask questions which are not dealt with elsewhere in this book. Do certain types of perfume molecules give specific types of smell? How do our smell receptors distinguish between different types of perfume molocule? Can we, in contrast to what Engen believes (Chapter 4), hope to design novel odorants which will elicit powerful moods, even if we have not previously smelt such odours?

In the author’s opinion the study of the influence of odours on the human senses, connected partly with physiology and partly with psychology, is at least as important for the perfumer as the study of any other subject treated by various authors, and considered to be the foundation of perfumery.

Paul Jellinek, The Practice of Modern Perfumery, 1959