Question Corner: What causes body odour to smell pungent?

Scientists have finally solved the mystery behind the armpit’s ability to produce the pungent smell of body odour. Bad odour in the armpit is mainly due to a mixture of volatile organic compounds with volatile fatty acids and thioalcohols being the primary components. Thioalcohols are found in trace amounts but are the most pungent. Thioalcohols are released as a by-product when certain bacteria (Staphylococcus hominis) convert compounds present in sweat.

The role of the microbes in the armpit for the formation of body odour is well known. But the molecular mechanism of how the bacteria seen in armpits produce body odour was not known.

Researchers at the University of York, U.K. traced the source of underarm odour to a particular enzyme in a certain microbe that lives in the human armpit. The enzyme converts a precursor alcohol to thioalcohols. The researchers found that the odour-producing bacteria have this enzyme, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. This gives the S. hominis bacteria the ability to produce thioalcohol, which was previously unknown.

The understanding of how specific bacteria biochemically contribute to malodour in human armpits will help in developing more targeted strategies to inhibit body odour.