No head is too little for science , and there is a body of inquiry devoted to determining the who s and how s of the asparagus smell of human urine . Here ’s a snapshot of said research .
For Marcel Proust , one of the after - effects of eating asparagus , was that it “ … transforms my bedchamber - pot into a flask of perfume . ” This unusual phenomenon is well sleep together by a ( disputed ) percentage of Asparagus officinales - eater who are golden ( or unlucky ) enough to be able to nasaly observe the veg ’s perfumed metabolites in their ( or others ’ ) urine . And it has been the subject of evenhandedly intense scientific scrutiny for more than a C .
The first formal study come fromWilhelm Marceli Nencki , who , in 1891 , bring out his paper – ‘ Ueber das vorkommen von methylmercaptan in menschlichen harn nach spargelgenuss ’ . ( Arch Exp Path Pharmak . 28:206–209 ) And , inordinately perhaps , to this day full correspondence in the scientific residential district regarding the precise nature of the phenomenon is still wanting . For example , only a ( scrap ) percentage of people actually excrete the odorant(s ) , and the biologic basis for the inability to produce the metabolite in noticeable quantities is unknown . More perplexing still , as mention above , not everyone can sense the eliminate chemical – even if it is present .
advance towards a full verbal description is still being made however , and the recent edition of the journal Chemical Senses carries aresearch paperfrom theMonell Chemical Senses Center , Philadelphia , and theDepartment of psychological science , University of South Florida describing a newfangled band of experiment which delve not only into the question of who is probable to excrete what ( and in what quantities ) , but also who can or can not detect the as yet unknown smelly chemicals .
Two experiments , involving a circle of 38 adult male and female eaters and sniffer ( enter via a newsprint ad . ) have made steps towards clarifying the closed book – confirm that there are hereditary factor at study when it comes to being able to detect the smell . ( “ … people with a fussy allelomorph within an olfactory gene cluster is relate to the ability to smell the odor . ” ) There is , however , considerable oscilloscope for further work to be done on the asparagus / urine - odor / enigma :
“ … the recognition of the asparagus odor in urine is not an all - or - nothing phenomenon ; some people produce an asparagus odor that is gentle to detect , and the presumptuousness is that some people produce more odorant . However , because the odour - causing mote have not been unequivocally identify , [ … ] it is not possible to measure out its denseness in water ; it is reasonable to assume that odorant production motley from individual to somebody , and people with urine that does not have a perceptible odor may produce it , albeit at a miserable engrossment . ”
The full paper : ‘ excrement and Perception of a Characteristic Odor in Urine after Asparagus Ingestion : a Psychophysical and Genetic Study ’ is uncommitted in .pdf formathere .
This place originally appeared onImprobable Research .
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