What Smells Like Corn Chips, Buttered Popcorn, Lemons, Almonds, Cherry Cola and Mint?
If Moses supposes his toeses are roses,
Then Moses supposes erroneously;
For nobody's toeses are posies or roses,
As Moses supposes his toeses to be.
These lyrics from a 1895 nonsense tongue-twister song were made popular in the 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain.
Enjoy the incomparable combination of singing and dancing with Donald O’Connor and Gene Kelly:
Some things are just so cool.
Aromas, fragrances and smell in general have always fascinated me. So when I learn of quirky smell-related facts, I am hooked.
The feet of one of my dogs had an aroma of corn chips or cheddar cheese popcorn. Weird, I know. Yes; also weird that I would notice. Still, I found it intriguing and decided to educate myself on food odours produced by our fellow earthlings.
I sniffed out academic papers from reputable sources and learned some interesting tidbits.
Dogs' Paws and Corn Chips
The corn chip scent is a likely a combination of a yeast and a bacterium. Those dark, damp and airless spaces between the toes of your loving pup sometimes harbour a bacterium called proteus or pseudomonas. The former is more specifically called proteus vulgaris; it lives happily in both human and animal intestinal tracts and is found in water, oil and feces. Pseudomonas is a rather different creature and is a little less “benevolent” in nature.
According to Anne Estes, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland's Institute for Genome Science, "The scents given off by yeast and bacteria are their metabolic waste products, like sweat."
Good to know I wasn't just imagining it.
Buttered Popcorn in Southeast Asia
Suppose you were wandering about in the wilder areas of Southeast Asia and noticed a strong odour of hot buttered popcorn. It’s improbable that you were approaching a movie theatre; more likely you had stumbled upon a trail of a binturong (also called a bearcat, although it has no resemblance to a bear or a cat; in fact, the British naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell humourously described this delightful creature as "a badly made hearthrug").
According to a study published in The Science of Nature, the binturong creates this magic through a chemical compound in its urine. This compound has the non-magical name of 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline, or 2-AP between friends.
Here is what happens. When the binturong urinates it intentionally saturates its feet and tail. The scent trail it creates serves to communicate its location to others of its kind. This same compound (2-AP) is exactly what is found in popcorn when it is heated up.
Some Indian tigers and leopards also produce this same chemical. So beware if you smell hot buttered popcorn in the wild.
Lemon Weaponry
Never mind chocolate covered ants; the citronella ant of the United States (along with several other types of ants) spray formic acid. Formic acid smells lemony, and according to a study conducted at the University of Alberta, many ant species spritz their enemies with the substance.
Cherries, Almonds and Cherry Cola Bomb
A buggy type of almond joy is produced by a common millipede from the United States. More potent than the ants’ lemony spritzer, the liquid scent is a strong defense. The millipedes actually produce hydrogen cyanide, a potent poison that smells of almonds.
Another American millipede, the “flat” variety, has another chemical in its arsenal. This one produces a scent combo reminiscent of cherry with almonds, or like cherry cola. Cyanide with a twist.
Minty Fresh
On a more soothing note, white admiral butterflies of the northeastern USA and Canada leave behind a pleasing minty scent. These butterflies feed on wintergreen flowers causing them to excrete minty poop, similar to the fragrance of toothpaste.
If you don’t believe me, you can check with the University of Arizona where butterfly poop has been studied.
It’s a crappy job, but someone had to do it.
The words of Robert Louis Stevenson come to mind:
“The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
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