Thanks to the thorough, kind and extremely useful feedback I’ve received as a result of making this chart, I’ve created a revised edition of the Table of Organic Compounds and their Smells poster with 8 additions and corrections. See details underneath.
Additions
- I found a really old botany book that says undecan-2-one smells like “rue wort”. I don’t know what “rue wort” is, but I’ve labelled it on the chart anyway.
- Added a 15-carbon row, which includes tamarind, celery and musk smells.
- Added a benzene row, which includes almonds, tar and orange smells.
- Added methene, CH₂! It’s extremely unstable and is usually called ‘carbene’. Nobody knows what it smells like because it reacts before it reaches your nose.
Corrections
- Pentane now has a smell
- Alkenes are now labelled ‘unpleasant’
- Corrected the second ketone column header from “2-methyl-” to “methyl-“
- Moved kumquats to the left.
There were also some minor aesthetic changes: skull & crossbones symbol shows high toxicity (category I or II), while a warning symbol shows moderate toxicity (category III). A green face icon represents a highly unpleasant smell.
Again, thank you to all the people who emailed or otherwise messaged me with feedback on this poster. It pleases me to see how much this poster’s been shared around the internet on many different platforms. I’m glad you find it interesting. 🙂
James Kennedy 