Elucidating wood odour: Identification and quantification of odorants in different wood species

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Andrea Büttner
• Subject Area: Food Chemistry ; Analytical Chemistry
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447451295

Humans are continuously surrounded by wood in their daily lives. They get in touch with wood in its natural form when taking a walk in forests, parks or greenspaces. Moreover, wood is employed as building material, for floorings, furniture, or daily products like pencils, cooking spoons and toys. It is also an important basic raw material for wood-derived products like cellulose fibres, cardboards or paper. Thereby, wood emits an odour, which is usually perceived as very pleasant and can have physiological effects on humans. As a building material, wood largely influences the air quality in indoor environments. Although being of such importance, odour-active compounds of wood have rarely been investigated, and current evidence is limited to wood species with specific applications, like toasted wood used in the production of barrels for wine and spirits. Different species of wood, however, vary in grain, colour and hardness, and they also emit different odours. The specific odour of each wood type is composed of a variety of volatile compounds leading to different overall odour impressions. In the proposed project, a range of wood species will be analysed using human sensory evaluation in combination with odorant-analytical methods. The odour-active molecules will be identified and quantified in the different wood species. Then, the findings will be validated by odour reconstitution experiments. The proposed work will shed light on the odour composition of wood in general and lead to a comprehensive understanding of wood odour with focus on species-specific differences.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants