Smells like teenager… Sandalwood?
Few parents would describe their adolescent children’s scents as the smell of sandalwood. But one of the distinguishing components of body odor in teens is a substance that evokes that warm, woody scent, according to a small new studyin which the odors of adolescents were compared with those of infants and toddlers.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news for teens (and their parents) ended. While there were many similarities between the chemicals coming from teens and toddlers, the differences mostly favored the younger children, whose body odor samples contained higher levels of a compound with a floral scent. Adolescents, on the other hand, produced a substance that smelled like sweat and urine and contained higher levels of substances described as cheesy, musty and “goat-like.”
The authors of the study, published Thursday in the journal Communications Chemistry, would not go so far as to say the results proved that adolescents smoke worse than babies. But the differences they documented “may contribute to less pleasant body odor in teenagers,” says Diana Owsienko, who conducted the study as part of her doctoral research at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. (She is now a researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.)
Body odor is a complex mixture of airborne chemicals, many of which are produced when sweat and sebum, an oily substance typically secreted through hair follicles, are broken down by skin microbes or react with other compounds in the air. The differences in odor between young children and teenagers likely stem from puberty-induced changes in sweat and sebum production, the researchers said.
The study was based on samples of 18 young children aged 3 years or younger, and 18 adolescents who had gone through puberty. To collect the body odor samples, the scientists sewed small cotton patches into the armpits of T-shirts and bodysuits, which the children and teens wore at night. (Participants were asked not to use perfumed hygiene products for 48 hours beforehand and to eat mainly fragrant foods, such as onions and garlic.)
In the laboratory, the scientists extracted and analyzed the chemical compounds that had permeated the patches, pooling samples from multiple children in the same age group.
Scent samples from young children contained largely the same chemical ingredients as the samples from teenagers, the researchers found.
But there were two compounds, both steroids, that were only present in the adolescent samples. Sweat glands, which only become active during puberty, secrete precursors of these compounds, which are converted by skin microbes into the relevant steroids.
Characterizing odors is difficult. “There is no global consensus on how to describe odors,” says Helene Loos, aroma and odor researcher at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and author of the new paper.
Odor experts at the university had previously developed a standard vocabulary for characterizing the odors of different compounds, with an initial focus on food aromas. “We have now also extended this taste language to substances that occur in body odors,” says Dr. Loos.
Careful sniffing of the adolescents’ steroids revealed that one of the compounds smelled of sandalwood and musk. The other also had musky qualities, with the unfortunate addition of sweat and urine-like aromas.
The teens also had higher levels of compounds called carboxylic acids. These included the stale, cheesy and goaty substances – as well as some with less offensive aromas, variously described as earthy, fruity or waxy.
Carboxylic acids are found in sebum, which also includes other compounds that can be converted into carboxylic acids by microbes or various chemical processes. During puberty, sebum production increases.
The researchers theorize that, in combination, the two musky steroids plus the higher levels of carboxylic acids may explain why adolescent body odor can be unpleasant for some people.
“I think it is difficult to say that one scent is always pleasant for everyone and to say that another scent is always unpleasant for everyone,” Ms. Owsienko said. “So this is an assumption on our part.”