DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post

**awagsFare** · 04-29-2012, 08:27 PM

Just been outside tidying my garden and beating some lemon thyme into submission. While doing so I began to wonder about the lemon fragrance that many unrelated plants have (Eucalypts, lemon grass, lemon thyme, lemon balm and of course lemons). Do all these plants contain the same compound which creates this smell, or are unrelated chemicals involved that just happen to have this lemon property?

What other odours do plants have like the above examples? I was thinking peppermint, (mints, pelargoniums etc.), anybody want to add to the list or have other fragrances in mind?

The main compound common to the lemon scented plants is citral, an aldehyde. It occurs in admixture with other chemicals though. It reaches quite high levels in lemongrass.

Another lemon scented plant that springs to mind is Backhousia citriodora.

The odour components of plants are widely spread across different species. As an example, the local ti-tree here, Taxandria, has an oil that is a mixture of eucalyptus (cineole) and lemon (limonene) yet it smells like neither of those.

04-29-2012, 08:27 PM	#2
awagsFare Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 567 Senior Member	Just been outside tidying my garden and beating some lemon thyme into submission. While doing so I began to wonder about the lemon fragrance that many unrelated plants have (Eucalypts, lemon grass, lemon thyme, lemon balm and of course lemons). Do all these plants contain the same compound which creates this smell, or are unrelated chemicals involved that just happen to have this lemon property? What other odours do plants have like the above examples? I was thinking peppermint, (mints, pelargoniums etc.), anybody want to add to the list or have other fragrances in mind? The main compound common to the lemon scented plants is citral, an aldehyde. It occurs in admixture with other chemicals though. It reaches quite high levels in lemongrass. Another lemon scented plant that springs to mind is Backhousia citriodora. The odour components of plants are widely spread across different species. As an example, the local ti-tree here, Taxandria, has an oil that is a mixture of eucalyptus (cineole) and lemon (limonene) yet it smells like neither of those.
	Quote