Almost everything changes during puberty. Muscles get stronger, bodies grow taller, and frequently, body odor gets stronger. Scientists have now discovered a few of the substances that naturally give youngsters their scent.
Researchers report March 21 in Communications Chemistry that adolescent body odor has two stinky steroids and higher quantities of carboxylic acids than those of newborns and toddlers. These substances are produced when bacteria break down the oily secretions that keep our skin hydrated—sebum and armpit sweat—and they may be a factor in the dramatic changes in BO that occur during adolescence.
According to German scientist Helene Loos of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, “body odor changes through development.” “The range of distinct odor compounds found in body odors is quite impressive.”
18 teenagers, ages 14 to 18, and 18 small toddlers, ages 0 to 3, who had spent the night sleeping with cotton pads under their arms, provided samples of their body odor to Loos and colleagues. When body odor was broken down into its constituent parts, it was discovered that young children and teenagers shared more than 40 different chemicals.
Teenagers were more likely to smell carboxylic acid fragrances than older groups, even though certain chemical classes showed no differences in their scents. These compounds exhibited a range of pleasant aromas, classified as fruity, soapy, or grassy by a panel trained to assess olfactory cues, and less desirable scents such as cheesy, musty, or goatlike.
Additionally, two steroids that were unique to the kids’ body odor were found by researchers. One, identified as 5α-androst-16-en-3-one, has a musk, urine, and perspiration odor. The other one, identified as 5α-androst-16-en-3α-ol, has a sandalwood and musk scent.
Even though subjects avoided deodorant and used unscented body wash and detergent for two days before to the trial, a few components of scented items were also discovered.
Notably, according to biochemist Andreas Natsch of Givaudan, a fragrance and taste company with its headquarters located in Vernier, Switzerland, several chemicals believed to contribute to severe body odor were not found. These compounds may be more visible after exerting oneself or breaking a sweat, or they may require alternative detection methods (SN: 7/13/21).
Loos hopes to find those substances and investigate how BO varies at different phases of growth in his future work (SN: 5/30/12).
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