Aroma Chemistry

The Chemistry of Lavender & How it Repels Moths

Why Can Lavender Be Used to Repel Moths? – The Chemistry of Lavender

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Hanging in the wardrobes of our flat, alongside our clothes, are a couple of small bags of dried lavender. Like many others, we keep them there to ward off clothes moths, but while offhandedly discussing this a couple of weeks ago I realised that I had absolutely no idea if there was scientific evidence to back up this repellent effect. So, I did what any good scientist would, and started a quest to find out whether lavender’s anti-moth powers were the real deal, or as scientifically holey as the moth-eaten clothes it claims to ward against!

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The Smelly Chemistry of the Titan Arum Corpse Flower

The Smelly Chemistry of the Titan Arum ‘Corpse Flower’

The Smelly Chemistry of the Titan Arum Corpse Flower
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Usually, you’d want to stay as far away as possible from a smell described variously as like ‘dead rat’, ‘mouldy bath mat’, or ‘cabbages and death’. However, the residents of Cambridge, UK, have been flocking to the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens over the past two days to sample this unpleasant sounding aroma for themselves. The explanation lies in the source of the smell: the rare occurrence of a Titan Arum plant flowering.

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