Abstract
Human body odour is relatively stable as it is to some extent genetically determined. However, it is also shaped by environmental factors including eating habits.
We know very little about how individual alimentary components shape our body odour though. In two experiments we tested the effect of garlic consumption on axillary odour because of its distinctive smell caused by allicin which is usually released when cutting or chewing garlic.
We used balanced within-subject experimental design. 10 and 16 male odour donors, 14 and 40 female raters using hormonal contraceptives participated in the first and second experiment, respectively. Males were divided in two groups (A, B).
Males in A group were given bread and butter mixed with garlic (Experiment 1: 6g and experiment 2: 12g of garlic, this corresponds to 2 and 4 cloves of fresh garlic, respectively), while men in B group were given only bread and butter. Groups were reversed one week later.
Donors fixed the cotton pads into both armpits and wore them for 12 hours. Odour samples were assessed by raters for their pleasantness, attractiveness, masculinity and intensity on 7-point scale and analysed by paired t-test.
In the first experiment, hedonic assessment of experimental (garlic) was higher compared to control (non-garlic) condition, however these differences were not statistically significant. Results of the second experiment showed that the odour of donors in experimental (garlic) conditions was judged as significantly more attractive, more pleasant and less intense than in control (non-garlic) conditions.
This unexpectedly suggests that garlic consumption positively influences perceived body odour hedonicity. It could be caused by well documented antioxidant properties of garlic and/or garlic´s activity against many Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria including genus Staphylococcus which contributes to the production of the armpit odour.