2025 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 23-29
In this study, skatole, a substance whose odor quality changes at high and low concentrations, has been investigated to identify the concentration at which this change occurs. The panelists, who had a typical detection threshold for skatole, were provided with samples containing liquid skatole in sample storage bottles and instructed to evaluate the headspace gas upon opening the lids. As a result, the concentration of the substance reached 10-6.7 , showing a clear shift to the unpleasant side with a value below -1. Additionally, the similarity of odor qualities between different concentrations was examined based on the pattern similarity rate. It has been found that the mean value profiles at 10-6 and 10-6.5 yielded a pattern similarity rate of 0.880, falling below 0.9, which serves as a threshold for detecting changes in odor quality. Furthermore, "stimulating-mild" and "like-dislike" evaluations, characteristics of skatole's odor quality, changed at concentrations higher than 10-6.5 from slightly disliked and neither stimulating nor mild to slightly stimulating and disliked. Based on these results, it has been inferred that the concentration at which skatole's odor quality changes is around 10-6.5.
