Archive for August, 2008
The aroma of pheromones and its importance
Written by SubmitEdge on August 12, 2008 – 11:07 am -Pheromone is a chemical secreted by the skin glands in the male body. As a matter of fact, Pheromone in human body is secreted by apocrine gland. It is a specific type of skin gland that exists in the groin, belly and chest regions of the male body. When Pheromone is released by the gland it does not have odor but sends signals to the females.
In fact, scientists debate whether the effect of pheromones in humans is due to their smell or to another and more primitive chemical sensory system. Other mammals have a structure called the Jacobsen’s organ or vomeronasal organ (VMO) that registers the presence of pheromones in the nasal cavity and sends a direct message to the part of the brain that connects with the endocrine (hormonal) system.
For many years, scientists believed that this structure didn’t exist within the human brain. Now, although the existence of the VMO in humans has been clearly documented, scientists debate whether it functions or is just a worthless remnant of the very earliest moments of our species. Long story short, scientists don’t know if we humans respond to pheromones as a result of smelling them or as a result of a more primitive method of sensing the chemical message that pheromones contain.
However, as soon as the secretions of the apocrine glands come into contact with the hordes of bacteria on the surface of the skin, these substances are instantly transformed into androstenol and androstenone. The term ‘pheromones’ refers to both the apocrine secretions and the compounds that they are converted to by bacteria, and the latter do have characteristic odors.
Androstenol smells like musk, but androstenone smells a little like urine. So naturally occurring pheromones don’t necessarily smell pleasant.
Not surprisingly, these two pheromones affect people differently. A pair of studies asked both men and women to rate pictures of people while wearing masks steeped in either androstenone or androstenol.
While wearing the androstenone-soaked masks, both men and women rated the people in photographs as less attractive or dynamic. Women in this study also reported that they felt less “sexy.†In contrast, while wearing the androstenol-soaked masks, both men and women perceived the women as sexier and more attractive and friendly and the men as more approachable and friendly.
In another study, women who sniffed at a bottle containing the odorless pheromone, androstadienone, experienced an elevation in their mood and higher levels of sexual arousal. Their physiology showed comparable changes, as their heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing all increased. Androstadienone is the precursor compound to androstenone.
Different pheromones are inseparable when they occur naturally. Men can’t secrete just androstadienol, the substance that turns into androstenol, the ‘friendly’ pheromone. Nor can they secrete just androstadienone. While this might seem counter-productive, it actually mimics the way pheromones are used by other species: to attract and repel members of the same species. For mating to occur, receptive and compatible females are attracted and incompatible females and competing males are repelled.
However, synthetic pheromones can supply just one of these compounds. It’s important to understand that these compounds—the secretions androstadienone and androstadienol and the resulting compounds androstenone and androstenol—are just the best-studied human pheromones to date. Research on the existence and effect of human pheromones is in, if not its infancy, then its toddler years. We can expect that future research will reveal other compounds that function as human pheromones, too.
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