Brain responses to odor mixtures with sub-threshold components.

Although most odorants we encounter in daily life are mixtures of several chemical substances, we still lack significant information on how we perceive and how the brain processes mixtures of odorants. We aimed to investigate the processing of odor mixtures using behavioral measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The odor mixture contained a target odor (ambroxan) in a concentration at which it could be perceived by half of the subjects (sensitive group); the other half could not perceive the odor (insensitive group).

Aromatic aldols and 1,5-diketones as optimized fragrance photocages.

Aromatic aldols and 1,5-diketones with abstractable γ-hydrogen atoms are highly photoactive cage molecules for the release of fragrance carbonyl compounds (aldehydes and Michael ketones, respectively). Aldols 3a-d are easily accessible by Mukaiyama addition and are cleaved to form the substrates with high quantum yields under solar radiation. By tuning the properties of the chromophores, a series of δ-damascone cages 5 were developed that can be used for selective and fast (5a,e) or slow (5b,d) release of fragrances under air and solar irradiation.