Friday, 25 August 2017

botany - Why does freshly cut grass smell like a watermelon?


I found that, when I smell watermelon aroma outdoors, someone nearby has mowed the grass. Is there an underlying basis?



Answer



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cis-3-hexenal is probably the main reason. It is one of the main chemicals in fresh-cut grass smell (lots of references besides wiki if you google it). This fairly comprehensive paper on watermelon odorants also says that they find a lot of cis-3-hexenal in fresh cut watermelon. See tables 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3.


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