Acree, T.E. 1993.
Gas Chromatography - Olfactometry.
In Flavor Measurement. C.T. Ho and C. Manley (Ed.), 77-94. Marcel Dekker, inc., New York.
The analytical chemist is convinced that the results of certain sensory tests, especially descriptive tests, are neither reproducible nor meaningful. Futhermore, the sensory scientist, in attempting to correlate sensory data with data produced by the analytical chemist, knows that much of what the chemist measures is not the cause of the sensory responses obtained from panels. However, one technique brings these two groups of scientists together: gas chromatography-olfactory (GCO), or the sniffing of gas-chromatographic effluents. GCO produces sensory responses to chromatographically separated chemicals. The sensory scientist finds the human responses useful and convincing, while the chemist is impressed by the retention times at which the responses were made. This paper summarizes the history of GCO, gives some examples of its application in natural products chemistry, and speculates about its future use to bridge the gap between sensory science and analytical chemistry.