Many people who have smelled marijuana, know that it is not the best smell in the world. In fact, it often smells like skunk.

A new study has revealed what exactly causes marijuana to have that distinctive skunk smell to it.

A team from California’s Abstrax Tech discovered a new family of prenylated volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) which create the odor. The compounds that produce the skunky smell in the plant have a lot in common with the smell that skunks spray onto enemies.

Since skunks use several VSCs in their foul-smelling spray, lead study author Iain Oswald and researchers have thought the particles also play a role in cannabis’ smell.

The research team examined the flowers from 13 different types of cannabis plants using a custom 2D gas chromatography system with three different kinds of smell detectors.

A four-person panel ranked the pungency of each marijuana variety on a scale of 0 to 10. Results show that the most pungent variety of cannabis, Bacio Gelato, also had the highest concentration of VSCs.

Additionally the study authors detected seven different VSCs in this particular cannabis flower. The team also found some of those in the other cannabis varieties tested.

Overall, five of the VSCs had skunk-like or sulfuric aromas.

The findings are published in the journal ACS Omega.


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