A Model for Odour Thresholds

Odour detection thresholds, that we have previously obtained, have been analysed by a general equation for selective transport.It is shown that such selective transport can account for some 77% of the total effect.The remainder is due to a specific size effect, that might involve odour-binding proteins, and a specific effect for aldehydes and carboxylic acids.Our analysis raises the question of whether selective transport is physically separable from the specific effects of receptor activation.The model predicts a chemical cut-off in odour detection along any homologous series. VOC airVOC mucus VOC