Magnolia-jasmine aroma could make you a hot ticket: study

If the root of the word sounds familiar, it's derived from the Greek word "hedone," for fun, pleasure and lust, commonly used in the English language with a suffix at the end, as in "hedonism."

Known already as the scent of success, Hedione smells like jasmine and magnolia and is found in many perfumes.

Scientists aren't sure whether humans communicate using pheromones as animals do, but Hedione could offer new evidence.

Pheromones are chemicals that when secreted on the skin or excreted during bodily functions trigger a nearly homogeneous social response from other beings in the same species.

When breathed into the human olfactory epithelium inside the nose, Hedione activates the pheromone receptor VN1R1, according to the team of cell physiologists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

The effects are different, depending on whether a man or a woman breathes in Hedione, according to their paper.

"These results constitute compelling evidence that a pheromone effect different from normal olfactory perception indeed exists in humans," says scent researcher Dr. Hanns Hatt.

The researchers first confirmed the existence of the pheromone receptor VN1R1 using genetic-analysis.

They then transferred the genetic code for the receptor into cell cultures in which they were able to observe the receptor being activated upon coming into contact with Hedione.

The next step was to analyze what occurs in the brain when a man or woman smells Hedione and to compare it with the effects of a traditional floral fragrance whose main ingredient was phenylethyl alcohol.

Hedione lit up the limbic system, which is associated with emotions, memory and motivation and, in women it activated a region of the hypothalamus.

The researchers say this activity pattern is akin to that of sexual behavior, for it in turn ignites the endocrine system.

The conventional floral fragrance had a lesser effect, for the brain was less active when participants breathed it.

Say it with flowers - or a magnolia jasmine scent called Hedione

In the animal kingdom, pheromones are a means of communication.

Mice, for example, have approximately 300 genes for pheromone receptors and scientists estimate that only five remain active in post-evolutionary man.