Scents from rain forests

Abstract

Since the dawn of time, the secretive and fragile kingdom of the Rain Forest, which covers 11-13% of all emerged land and shelters eight to nine tenths of all forms of known and unknown life, has harboured extraordinary biological treasures that deserve to be treated with the utmost care. According to a further estimate, 70-80% of these species, i.e. around 60% of the entire biodiversity, is located for ecological reasons in the canopy region of the Rain Forests. Convinced that this richness would also be reflected on the olfactory level, for the past years we have searched in the understory as well as in the canopy of Rain Forests for new attractive scents. This communication opens the discussion of chemical, biological and olfactory aspects of such scents.