Cheap, synthetic-smelling pongs are out. Fresh and natural smells are in. And many of today's fragrances have to survive tougher treatment than ever before, resisting the destructive power of bleach or a high-temperature wash cycle. Chemists can create new smells from synthetic molecules, and a growing number of the odours on the perfumer's palette are artificial. But nature has been in the business far longer.
Plants produce countless fragrant chemicals.
Some are intended to attract pollinators. Others are produced for quite different reasons. The fragrant resins that ooze from wounds in a tree, for instance, defend it against infection. Last October, Quest International, a company that develops fragrances for everything from the most delicate perfumes to cleaning products, sent an expedition to Madagascar in pursuit of some of nature's most novel fragrances. Madagascar is an evolutionary hot spot, and 85 per cent of the plants there are found nowhere else.