Making sense of scents闻香识味

Making sense of scents
闻香识味
A new way to describe a fragrance
一种区别芳香种类的新方法
Dec 9th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION


PERFUMES have colourful descriptions, such as floral or musky, to give buyers an inkling of their aromas. But perfumers often disagree about how to describe a particular fragrance, so the classification of scents is inconsistent. Now researchers have revealed a new system to bring some order to this odoriferous business.
香水拥有有着丰富多彩的种类，比如花香型或者麝香型，这可以让顾客了解他们使用的是什么类型的香水。但是香水的研制人员经常在描述一种特别香味时意见相左，因此行业中对气味的分类没有统一标准。如今研究人员发现了一种新型气味鉴别系统，可以为香水行业带来一些秩序规范。


One reason why people describe smells differently is a weakness of the nose. Although the human sense of smell is keen, it is hampered by a lack of precision. When presented with hundreds of odours, the nose can simultaneously distinguish only a few. Keenly aware of these problems, Alírio Rodrigues at the University of Porto in Portugal and his colleagues compiled an extensive list of scent descriptions from the existing databases used by the perfume industry. They found that eight general terms for scents (citrus, floral, green, fruity, herbaceous, musk, oriental and woody) could work as families to which more than 2,000 specific scents could be assigned. The team then plotted these eight families onto a map that resembled the plots on a radar screen.
人们对同一气味有着不同的描述的原因之一，就是人类的鼻子的生理性限制。尽管人类的嗅觉很敏锐，但是灵敏度却远远不够。当面对着上百种气味的时候，鼻子只能同时分辨出其中的一小部分。Keenly意识到了这个问题，葡萄牙波尔图大学的Alírio Rodrigues和同事在现存的香水业数据库中广泛的收集了一份描述香水气味的资料。他们发现八种基本香味系统组合在一起（柑桔香，花香，绿茶香，水果香，草本香，麝香，东方香料香和木本香型），经过调配可以生成超过2000种不同的特别香味。科研小组接着将这八个香味集合系统分化标记，描绘在一张图谱上，这张图谱通过雷达扫描可以在荧光屏上显示出这些标记。


Dr Rodrigues then tested what the group calls its "perfumery radar" by presenting it with four essential scent oils: orange, lemon, jasmine and thyme. To do this, the oils were broken into their component parts and analysed using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. This allows molecules of oil to be compared against a spectral library which could identify them chemically and assign each oil to one of the eight families.
然后，Rodrigue博士开始检测小组所谓的"香水雷达探测器"，他将四种味道的基本香精油（柑橘、柠檬、茉莉与百里香）放在这个设备面前。为了完成这项实验，精油被分解为最初的组成成分，并被加以气体色谱分析与质谱分析。这种方法能够使精油分子与一个气味谱系产生对照对比，这个气味谱系能运用化学的方法指出并确定每一种精油源自于八大香味集合中的哪一支系。

The team already knew that lemon and orange should naturally fall into the citrus family, jasmine should be floral and thyme herbaceous. But would the perfumery radar make the same choices? Dr Rodrigues was pleased to discover it did. He then put it to work classifying 14 perfumes, including Chanel No 19, Dior's Addict and Kenzo's Jungle Tigre. The team compared their system's classification with those of industry experts, with noses that can discern fine details, working for three firms in the scent business, Osmoz, Scent Direct and Haarmann & Reimer (H&R).
该小组已知柠檬与柑橘的香味原本从属于柑桔香系，茉莉香应属于花香系而百里香应从属草本香系。可是香水雷达探测器能够做出相同的判断吗? Rodrigues博士很欣慰的发现，雷达做了一致的判断。接着他运用这项技术来分辨14种香水，包括香奈儿19号、迪奥的魅惑和KENZO的丛林老虎。当小组运用这项技术为Osmoz, Scent Direct 和 Haarmann & Reimer (H&R)三家香水公司提供服务时，通过这项技术――系统分类法与香水业的专家分析相对比，小组成员发现他们的方法可以清楚的发现很多精巧的细节。


Some perfumes, like Chanel No 19, described by all three firms as floral-green, offered little challenge to the radar. However, for perfumes like Jungle Tigre, described by Osmoz as "oriental-spicy" and by H&R as "chypre-fruity", the radar came up with a sensible midway description, declaring it to be strongly floral in character with green and oriental subfamilies.
一些香水，比如被以上三家公司普遍认为从属于花香、绿茶香系的香奈儿19号，并没有给香水雷达探测器的分辨造成任何困难。但是，像丛林老虎这类被Osmoz形容为"东方-香料香系"、被H&R称作"檀香-果香系"的香水，香水雷达探测器给出了介于两者之间的合理描述，称这种香水的主属花香型，然而配料中添有绿茶香和东方香料香。


Overall, as the researchers report in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, their system agreed with assessments made by experts who had come to similar conclusions, and it provided logical descriptions for perfumes that are frequently disputed. The researchers plan to make their radar available as a product which they believe perfumers can use to save time and money developing new scents.
总体而言，正如研究学者在化学工业工程研究刊物上发表的报道，他们系统的分类检测与许多专家做的测试得出的是相似的结论，并且这个系统还为以往经常产生争论的香水提供了合理的分析描述。研究人员计划将他们的香水雷达探测器商品化，让香水制造商在新型香水开发上节省时间与金钱。


It might also find a use in other trades that require a good nose. A wine radar would settle any argument between oenophiles as to whether a slight whiff of soggy cardboard indicates that a $1,000 bottle of claret has become corked.
探测器对于需要敏锐嗅觉的生意同样十分有用。一个葡萄酒气味雷达探测器将解决品酒师们之间的任何争论――比如些许轻微的潮湿纸板的气味是否意味着价值1000美元的一瓶红葡萄酒因没塞好塞子而走味