Heart and Lungs May Detect Smell of Food Says a New Research

A recent research presented at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, suggests that different part of the body like heart, lungs and even blood may have smell receptors. This contradicts the current belief that olfactory receptors are present only in the nose. It is known that foods contain numerous odor components, while only very of them are being detected by the smell receptors in the nose. The findings of this research suggest that other odors might be detected by other organs.

Researchers from the German Research Centre for Food Chemistry, experimented with biogenic amines, which are the odorant chemical messengers found in food items. The tested the reaction of blood cells to different pungent food chemicals. It was noted that the blood cells were attracted towards odorant compounds food in foods like chocolate.

Professor Peter Schieberle, lead scientist says that signals from all the smell receptors are processed in the brain to create an overall impression on that particular food.

However, the research is in the preliminary stage and scientists are determined to explore further on the topic.

Source-Medindia