Elucidating wood odour: Identification and quantification of odorants in different wood species

人类在日常生活中不断地被木材所包围。当他们在森林、公园或绿地散步时，他们会接触到自然形态的木材。此外，木材被用作建筑材料，用于地板，家具或日常产品，如铅笔，烹饪勺子和玩具。它也是木材衍生产品如纤维素纤维、纸板或纸张的重要基本原料。因此，木材散发出一种气味，这种气味通常被认为是非常令人愉快的，并且可以对人类产生生理影响。木材作为一种建筑材料，对室内空气质量有很大影响。虽然如此重要，但很少对木材的气味活性化合物进行研究，目前的证据仅限于具有特定应用的木材品种，如用于生产葡萄酒和烈酒桶的烤木材。然而，不同种类的木材在纹理、颜色和硬度上各不相同，它们也发出不同的气味。每种木材的特殊气味由各种挥发性化合物组成，导致不同的整体气味印象。在拟议的项目中，将使用人类感官评价结合气味分析方法分析一系列木材品种。气味活性分子将在不同的木材品种进行鉴定和量化。然后，将通过气味重建实验来验证研究结果。拟议的工作将阐明一般木材的气味组成，并导致全面了解木材气味，重点是物种特异性差异。

Humans are continuously surrounded by wood in their daily lives. They get in touch with wood in its natural form when taking a walk in forests, parks or greenspaces. Moreover, wood is employed as building material, for floorings, furniture, or daily products like pencils, cooking spoons and toys. It is also an important basic raw material for wood-derived products like cellulose fibres, cardboards or paper. Thereby, wood emits an odour, which is usually perceived as very pleasant and can have physiological effects on humans. As a building material, wood largely influences the air quality in indoor environments. Although being of such importance, odour-active compounds of wood have rarely been investigated, and current evidence is limited to wood species with specific applications, like toasted wood used in the production of barrels for wine and spirits. Different species of wood, however, vary in grain, colour and hardness, and they also emit different odours. The specific odour of each wood type is composed of a variety of volatile compounds leading to different overall odour impressions. In the proposed project, a range of wood species will be analysed using human sensory evaluation in combination with odorant-analytical methods. The odour-active molecules will be identified and quantified in the different wood species. Then, the findings will be validated by odour reconstitution experiments. The proposed work will shed light on the odour composition of wood in general and lead to a comprehensive understanding of wood odour with focus on species-specific differences.