December 3, 2012

Why Does the Durian Fruit Smell So Bad?

Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian


Kalai/Wikimedia Commons

If you’ve smelled a durian even once, you probably remember it. Even with the husk intact, the notorious Asian fruit has such a potent stench that it’s banned on the Singapore Rapid Mass Transit. Food writer Richard Sterling has written “its odor is best described as…turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away.”

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TAGGED: organic molecules, fruit, smell, durians

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