Monday, January 24, 2011

Cilantro and Stink Bugs

Yesterday I was on the phone with my parents, and my mom told me that stink bugs (which have heavily populated the east coast) smell like cilantro. My dad thought she was crazy. I did some research into it this morning, and it turns out that the main scent factor in both stink bugs and cilantro is an unsaturated aldehyde. I couldn't find the structure for the aldehyde in cilantro, but it makes sense that they would have similar smells. I've also heard of people that are not bother by the smell of stink bugs. I suspect that they are the same people that enjoy cilantro.

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