this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Petrichor (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 152 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Wording is funky. To clarify:

The rain smell is due to a compound called geosmin. The bacteria that produces it is Streptomyces.

When I taught microbiology lab, I would grow a petri dish of Streptomyces during one particular class and have the students smell it

[–] Shellbeach@lemmy.world 81 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

You mean.... You can ... Bottle up petrichore ??? How come is there no wide range of perfume/candle/lotion and whatnot?

Can I make it at home, if so, how would I go about it with everyday items? Can streptomyces cause health issues?

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 58 points 2 days ago

There absolutely are petrichor scented things

[–] Edge004@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

I have some of this. It smells pretty good

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There's like an indian family/company that's been making some hiqh quality petrichor perfume for idk at least 100 years, probably several hundreds, if not a thousand or more idk.

I forget what it's called you can probably look it up with perfume pertrichor india

edit it's called "Mitti Attar"

[–] Comment105@lemm.ee 11 points 2 days ago

They might've been making it for 10,000 years for all I know. I don't know shit.

[–] drre@feddit.org 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've never smelled the stuff but apparently the smell of rain is something people try to bottle.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/smell-of-rain-kannauj-perfume-mitti-attar-india

[–] Comment105@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's the romanticized, traditional Indian cowshit mix trying to approximate it. (Not doing a disparaging stereotype here, that's just literally how the article says they make it.)

I'd be surprised if it actually contains the compound we're talking about.

[–] drre@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

i Kind of doubt it. in a video i saw if the process they were using hardfired bricks. i don't believe any organic compounds would survive the heat.

(dung might be a better term for what you were referring to. i seem to remember that because of the way they feed their cattle the dung has a very high fibre content which makes it a good source for building material. it's nowhere as gross as the diarrhea like consistency we get from cows in Europe)

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] three@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

I'm nothing close to a chemist but I love watching chemistry videos.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 22 points 2 days ago

Well the smell of rain is actually petrichor, it just has a combination of geosmin and ozone and other chemicals that make that smell.

Geosmin on its own is just a part of it.