Philip Kraft Livres

Smell and Taste - the chemical senses. They carry meaning to perceive and evaluate reality, but also evoke memories, feelings, and desires. They allow us to dream, to explore our emotions, or to seduce: 'A woman should wear her perfume wherever she wants to be kissed' advised Coco Chanel. The power of olfactory sensations seems almost magical to us - the chemistry behind these, however, is no mystery. The current topics of flavor and fragrance research are compiled in this book, which comprises 28 articles of the talks presented at the 2007 RSC/SCI 'Flavours and Fragrances' conference held at the Imperial College in London. The scope is intentionally broad and ranges from natural products to fragrance chemistry, to perfumery and olfaction, to foods and flavors. Chemistry is, however, the central and unifying discipline.

From May 12-14, 2004, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of the Chemical Industry hosted their fifth 'flavours & fragrances' conference at the Manchester Conference Centre, attracting over one hundred participants from twelve countries. This largest gathering in the series featured twenty-five speakers from academia and industry, presenting recent research across various topics, including Natural Products, Foods and Flavors, Perfumery and Olfaction, and Fragrance Chemistry. The conference highlighted the central role of research in the F&F industry, which is driven by innovation and evolving trends. Notably, new discoveries in the well-established areas of musks and amber odorants showcased the potential for new aroma chemicals. The conference logo featured Ambrocenide®, a novel ambery odorant derived from classical cedrene chemistry, symbolizing these advancements. Four of the sixteen conference papers are included in this special issue of Chemistry & Biodiversity, which focuses on biorelevant chemicals. Fragrance materials elicit biological responses and serve as signals, engaging the senses of smell and taste. Additionally, Fragrance Chemistry can document and preserve scent biodiversity, a topic explored in a lecture by Roman Kaiser, which was published as the first full paper in Chemistry & Biodiversity.