特定悪臭物質のにおい表現に関する検討

Abstract

As odor expressions of specified odor substances, fixed expressions such as "like urine" for ammonia and "like rotten egg" for hydrogen sulfide have been used. However, since the language used in everyday life has changed over time, it might be difficult to imagine the quality of odor from the fixed expressions. In order to explore the appropriate odor expression for each of specified odor substances, we examined the odor quality of them in this study. Odor intensities of the odor samples were adjusted to around 3. The investigation items, odor intensity, sniffing experience, and the degree of matching with 250 odor expressions, were evaluated by 42 college students. The experimental results showed that methyl mercaptan, hydrogen sulfide, trimethylamine, isobutyraldehyde and isovaleric acid were in high degree of matching with the conventional expressions. In other substances, abstract expressions such as "unique" and "muffled" were observed. In addition, objects and state expressions that differ from conventional expressions were also identified. It was speculated that one of the factors that influence the degree of matching of odor expressions is the background of the times.