Fuel, rotten meat & other ugly smells: what causes it?

[Tonygreen]

I love the smell of dogshit smelling weed but not so much when I step on it.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

The ugliest of the ugly smells, to me, is one that I've encountered on 2 plants so far in my 20 year career... I refer to it as the burnt rubber smell. YUCK!!! It always makes me want to vomit in my mouth. I trashed both plants that exhibited this smell without any mercy. One was Cheese by Dinafem. The other one I don't even remember what strain it was. But strangely enough, the smell always confused my olfactory sense, because it seemed to morph into a "fried chicken" smell every once in a while, and then my brain would make it go back to smelling like burnt rubber again. Anyway, it made me stop eating fried chicken for like 10 years!!! lol

lol i always thought that burning tires smell was what people were referring to when they said skunk smells.

that burnt rubber smelling weed tended to be the most indica weed ever. not going anywhere...

 

[indabonga]

typical skunk smell(fresh/sweet body odor) it's from the hops family.

 

[Only Ornamental]

Cannabis also contains other classes of compounds that contribute to taste and smell (maybe the high too?) besides terps.

Simple esters are found in pot (these are not the same as the esterified cannabinoids you may have read about) Here is a table I lifted from Wikipedia about simple esters in general:

Above the table it says:

'Many esters have distinctive fruit-like odors, and many occur naturally in the essential oils of plants. This has also led to their commonplace use in artificial flavorings and fragrances when those odors aim to be mimicked.'
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I'm pretty sure that I have read that methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen) has been identified in weed (maybe that's where the minty flavor and smell of that old Oaxacan you smoked back in the day came from).

Notice also that besides fruity smells simple esters can smell like pine, or like solvents or glue. Chem? Diesel? Maybe I guess, I don't know.

There are other types of compounds in pot that smell and taste too, but I have to go now. Maybe you can look into it for now, and later I will check in to add more.

As you said, many of these smell fruity, some 'solvent-like' (maybe that's because they're actually used as solvents LoL), sweetish, or vaguely floral. The piny smell is also something I'm not interested right now and caused mainly by some monoterpenes.
I was thinking about such esters too but so far never came across one which would explain the ugly smells... okay, I can't stand synthetic banana flavour and don't appreciate pine that much but that's beside the point . Also, most of the small esters are very volatile and quickly decrease during the drying and curing process. Nevertheless thanks for the table, quite helpful for other things I've been looking for lately!

Methyl salicylate has a very distinctive smell kinda hard to explain but I wouldn't say that it's primarily minty; that's just an 'undertone'. The mint smell in cannabis comes from menthone and other constituents related to menthol (the latter isn't contained in cannabis AFAIK). Can't recall right now which other monoterpene in cannabis also smells relatively minty, but there's at least one other.

EDIT: Both alpha- and beta-phellandrene have a minty flavour (besides other notes).

 

[SeedsOfFreedom]

Would'nt it be good if someone made like some sort of scratch and sniff type booklet for all the different terpene's that are known and what they're associated with, for example you could have a little square of limonene that when you scratch it smells like lemons and have written underneath a list of things that contain that terpene.
Everybody interprets smells differently and that type of thing could help connoisseurs hone their noses.
How many times have you had bud that smells wonderful but cant quite put your finger on what it smells like?
The other day i had a bud that to me smelt exactly like ripe mango but my girlfriend said carrots lol wtf!?

In the future I could see this happening, even going one step further and listing what effect each terpene has on humans. It could be very useful for medicinal purposes. It would even be pretty fun for getting high purposes really. I find that limonene, pinene mix makes me feel great all day(and tastes amazing), and I expect myrcene? is the one knocking me out when I smoke Afghan types for meds or sleep, but I don't really know much about terpenes! I am learning anyway, a scratch and sniff certainly would not hurt!

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

i love those bad smells

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

i once encountered a northern lights pheno that smeled like the really funky nettle snd comfrey compost tea i used on veggies befoer i grew weed. never encountered anything like it since. it smelled crazy but was a totally week plant made fluff that had no resin all leafy too.

 

[Only Ornamental]

Would'nt it be good if someone made like some sort of scratch and sniff type booklet for all the different terpene's...

That would be great! Although rather impossible... but the major ones should be feasible. Just wonder who will spend the money for the development.

typical skunk smell(fresh/sweet body odor) it's from the hops family.

I don't get it... do you mean it's something also found in hops like humulene and its epoxides?

@3X strayed etch 3X
My doctor proposes that you get a rhinectomy ASAP .

Just found some nice reading: CLICK ME

 

[moodster]

my chem 91 has the meaty/beefburger taste going on my veggie friend hates the taste of her LOL meaty funkiness

 

[Only Ornamental]

Burger-weed

Was searching again through publications on cannabis essential oil and those terpenes with a published smells aren't helpful at all .

 

[moodster]

actually its quite nice guess you haven't had the pleasure of skunk va chem 91 !

 

[Hydrosun]

I was wondering what might cause the fuel, diesel, rotten meat & dead skunk smells and maybe also other nasty odours... couldn't find anything and I know of no terpene with such kind of ugly smell.
I'd be grateful if anyone could shed some light on that.

Right now, my Ciskeis smell like the Cali-O from last year did: like overripe, rotten orange peel with hints of rancid motor oil and maybe something like turpentine. I suppose the orange and turpentine comes from racemic limonene. I don't like it that much though... Unfortunately, I never paid any attention on whether cannabis synthesises (D)-(+), (S)-(-), or racemic limonene. Anyone any idea?

I will go back and read the whole thread, but I wanted to post what came to mind first....

Why are these smells synthesized?

I would suspect that animals and insects are drawn to these smells, and the cannabis plant uses these smells to attract other animals in order to reproduce and combat harmful insects.

A smell that may repulse you may well attract something else that just loves it!

 

[Only Ornamental]

@Hydrosun: Do you propose that I simply get reincarnated as a carrion fly? You're a funny guy . But me being a dung-fly wouldn't stop my wondering 'bout the responsible chemicals causing the siren-like attraction to the sticky deathtrap .

But you're at least in part right with your reasoning about the sense behind the different scent profiles. But that's true for almost all plants producing essential oils .

actually its quite nice guess you haven't had the pleasure of skunk va chem 91 !

Never had a chem, diesel, trainwreck, OG kush, GSC, GG#4, or whatever hyped 'modern' US strain. On one hand I'd like to try them (just to be en vogue LoL) but on the other... smoking fuel? Bork!
I had just European Skunk and SuperSkunk; the ones prior 2000 were too stinky for me (and a dead giveaway), the one I grew last year was very fruity (really nice but not Skunk-like at all).

 

[Gry]

Interesting subject, can recall having seen some interesting charts on the subject , but not their source unfortunately.

 

[Hydrosun]

@Hydrosun: Do you propose that I simply get reincarnated as a carrion fly? You're a funny guy . But me being a dung-fly wouldn't stop my wondering 'bout the responsible chemicals causing the siren-like attraction to the sticky deathtrap .

But you're at least in part right with your reasoning about the sense behind the different scent profiles. But that's true for almost all plants producing essential oils .


Never had a chem, diesel, trainwreck or whatever hyped US strain. Just European Skunk and SuperSkunk; the ones prior 2000 were too stinky for me (and a dead giveaway), the one I grew last year was very fruity (really nice but not Skunk-like at all).

If I was a dung-fly I wouldn't think about shit! Oh wait that is a lot of what I would think about. Perhaps we should spend many years before reincarnation and obtain a much greater understanding of this plant and her smells

Alas I am no help as to which terpenes or other compounds create specific smell / flavor profiles.

I am very interested in the subject especially in correlation to how those flavors / smells relate to the canabinoid make up of the essential oil. Which profiles work best for which people? And do the profiles they prefer correlate to aliments they are treating with the essential oil?

On a personal note I have had the pleasure to enjoy hundreds of different amazing strains of cannabis flowers (the west coast of the USA is an amazing place). The best of the best can have any type of smell you could imagine.

 

[Only Ornamental]

...
I am very interested in the subject especially in correlation to how those flavors / smells relate to the canabinoid make up of the essential oil. Which profiles work best for which people? And do the profiles they prefer correlate to aliments they are treating with the essential oil?

On a personal note I have had the pleasure to enjoy hundreds of different amazing strains of cannabis flowers (the west coast of the USA is an amazing place). The best of the best can have any type of smell you could imagine.

I think we could learn quite a bit from aroma therapy . Sure, many terpenes also have 'conventional medicine effects' but these are seldom understood.
Anyway, cannabis has no monoterpene and no major sesquiterpene not found in a waste amount of common essential oils. Why not go with a combination of cannabis plus some drops essential oil? Many EO's have just a few major constituents so it should be possible to 'mimic' many terpenes of interest and get an estimate of quite a few possible profiles.

Besides, I envy you and all those lucky bastards from over there . On the other hand, I grew up with chocolate having any type of smell you could imagine (though the high is mediocre )...

 

[Elements001]

I have some critical mass that smells sweet in flower, but once you get her cured it's like straight ass.

 

[hush]

My cut of Sadhu starts off in early flowering smelling like a rank armpit. Then by about week 4 it balances out with the melon smell and there is no longer any indication that it ever used to smell like a hippy.

 

[Daub Marley]

I have always been interested in what gave that skunky scent so I have researched and asked every smart person I could find. Everyone says the same basic thing, "it's a thiol". The problem is that those thiols cannot be found in the strains. Nobody knows what gives it that scent, but I have a pretty good guess. There is another molecule in the mix that has the same basic shape and most importantly, roughly the same quantum vibration as the thiols that we typically associate with a skunk smell.

P.S I absolutely loves the skunk smell of certain strains and looked high and low to find one. I finally found that Tahoe OG had a very skunky smell but also has burnt rubber undertones. I didn't really care for it at first, but it has grown on me like many other strains. Any bad smell that is always mentally associated with a good feeling will eventually become a good scent.

 

[Hydrosun]

The combination of oils can be quite interesting.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=140269

"Sure, many terpenes also have 'conventional medicine effects' but these are seldom understood."

We need to start trying to understand how these oils and terpenes interact and effect humans.