Olfactory white

Olfactory white is a smell composed of many equally strong but diverse smells, perhaps over 30. Mixtures of many different smells across the perceptual range all tend to smell very similar to humans, despite different components making them up. The concept is similar to all different spectral colours combining to form white. Olfactory white is neither pleasant or malodorous.[1][2] A nonsense name "laurax" was coined for one of these mixtures.[3]

One example combination of smells that neutralise each other is broccoli, angelica seed oil, cumin, mussles, raw barley, lobster, blackberry brandy, rose wine, vitis, turnip, lamb, Indian dill root, loganberry, elderberry, raw peanut, prawn and citrus.[4]

References
  1. Corbyn, Zoë (2012). "The whiff of white could hide strong odours". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.11846. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 181093871.
  2. Weiss, T.; K. Snitz; A. Yablonka; R. M. Khan; D. Gafsou; E. Schneidman; N. Sobel (2012). "Perceptual convergence of multi-component mixtures in olfaction implies an olfactory white". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (49): 19959–19964. Bibcode:2012PNAS..10919959W. doi:10.1073/pnas.1208110109. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3523876. PMID 23169632.
  3. Yong, Ed (19 November 2012). "The "white noise" of smells". National Geographic.
  4. "Smell-canceling odors are like white noise for your nose". New Atlas. 6 November 2014.
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