The Smithsonian Magazine’s “Surprising Science” blog has solved a mystery that long plagued residents of Southeast Asians/owners of functional olfactory systems: Why does the durian fruit smell so bad?
Drumroll please…
In breaking down aroma extract, taken from Thai durians, with a mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph, the team, led by Jia-Ziao Li, pinpointed 50 discrete compounds in the fruit responsible for its uncommon aroma. Those compounds included eight that hadn’t been detected in durians before—and four compounds that had been completely unknown to science.
Apparently, no specific compound can be held responsible for the durian’s unique smell; the fruit is a veritable symphony of noisome offense.
Also worth noting is another of the durian’s salient properties: its ability to inhibit the liver’s breakdown of alcohol thanks to the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH).
In other words: Don’t drink and durian.
