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8249199 
Journal Article 
Structure-Odor Relationships for “Catty”-Smelling Mercapto Compounds in Humans 
Polak, E; Geneviève, F; Anne-Marie, F; Abdelhalim, S 
1988 
Yes 
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
ISSN: 0021-8561
EISSN: 1520-5118 
AMER CHEMICAL SOC 
WASHINGTON 
36 
2 
355-359 
English 
WOS:A1988M668500028 
Qualitative odor similarities of a series of mercapto ketones and mercaptans were determined on human subjects. trans-8-Mercapto-p-menthan-3-one, 4-mercapto-4-methyl-2-pentanone, 3-mercapto-3- methyl-2-pentanone, and tert-amyl mercaptan were selected from a group of 10 mercapto odorants and were tested in a confusion matrix subjected to factor correspondence analysis. The three mercapto ketones and surprisingly also the mercaptan were perceived as similar in odor quality. The tertiary mercapto amyl substructure appears to be the dominant odor quality determining feature of the “catty” note. The keto group can be in α- or β-position to the mercapto group but appears to be nonessential as in tert-amyl mercaptan. Similar structure-activity relationships had been found previously for the same volatiles in two behavioral experiments on rats measuring stress induction and odor similarity. © 1988, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.