# Floral Scent Evaluation of Three Cut Flowers Through Sensorial and Gas Chromatography Analysis
## 4 Discussion
As expected, most of the compounds detected as part of the floral scent in the three species analyzed were terpen. In particular monoterenes were the most abundant compounds, followed by sesquiterpenes (Figure 4). Terpenoid compounds are the largest group of plant natural products, with a wide variety of different structures playing different ecological roles [31], and many of them have been found in the floral scents of different plant species, acting mainly as attractors of pollinators [32]. The human perception threshold of these compounds is commonly very low; therefore, they are usually impact aroma compounds in the flowers [33]. The volatile profile of some species of _Chrysanthemum_ spp. have been described [34; 35; 36] and several of the compounds detected in our study were also reported previously. In particular camphor, \(\alpha\)-pinene, and \(\beta\)-pinene were reported as the main volatile compounds of the essential oil of _Chrysanthemum coronarium_ flowers [34], which are the same major VOCs we detected for this species. Moreover, cyanophyllene, a sesquiterpene previously reported in the scent of several flowers [8], in our study, was only observed in the flowers of chrysanthemum. This sesquiterpene, together with the previously described camphor, has been described as one of the impact aroma compounds in chrysanthemum [35; 36]. In contrast, in freesia, a lower number of volatile compounds were detected. Among them, linalool was the most abundant. This compound has been found in over 50% of plant families [8], and in freesia, the importance of linalool in the aroma of this species has been reported [37]. Previous studies concluded that based on the stable inheritance of linalool emission and the higher amount compared to other VOCs in the bouquet, linalool may have an important influence on the aroma of freesias [38]. The purpose of the production of linalool is not clear, but it might be to attract insects, or be related to a defense mechanism since linalool is relatively toxic to animals and microorganisms [39]. Also, in this flower, we observed a high amount of \(\beta\)-ionone, a carotenoid-derived compound [40] that has been found in several species, such as _Osmanthus fragrans_[41], petunia [42], and gladiolous [43]. Particularly in freesia, \(\beta\)-ionone has been described as the key compound influencing human perception of freesia's floral scent [44]. This occurs because \(\beta\)-ionone shows extreme sensitivity differences depending on the odorant receptors of the evaluators [45]. In comparison with chrysanthemum and freesia, the sum total of the relative area of VOCs was 70 and 25 times higher in the oriental lily than in the other two species, respectively. In the lily, \(\beta\)-cis-ocimene, a monoterpene, was the most abundant compound, followed by unidentified terpene 1, methyl benzoate, and eucalypt. \(\beta\)-cis-ocimene has been detected as the major compound in oriental liles (cv. 'Marco Polo', 'Siberia', and 'Sorbonne'), whereas this compound contributed little to the sum total of compounds in Asiatic and Longiflorum x Asiatic (LA) cultivars [15]. A previous study also described \(\beta\)-cis-ocimene, eucalypt, and linalool as the three major monoterpenes in all the oriental cultivars of lilium analyzed to date [46]. Moreover, \(\beta\)-cis-ocimene has been described as a key floral volatile in plants, playing an important role as an attractant of a wide spectrum of pollinators [47]. Another VOC found in the lilium bouquet was origanene (\(\alpha\)-thujene), a terpene described as having a 'wood/green/herb' scent, and which was not detected in the other two species tested here. This compound has previously been described in Bromeliaceae and _Montano tometosa_ flowers [48; 49]. Also, the quantities of D-limonene and unidentified terpene 1 were much higher in oriental lily than in the other two flowers.