Durian, these are two magic words. Just mentioning these two words can make (some) people drool, or (most) people nauseous. Durian is really a special magical existence, so why does durian smell so smelly? Do you know why?
1. Why is durian so delicious?
It contains more than 120 compounds.
More than 120 compounds are widely distributed in fruits, skunks, metals, rubber, roasted onions, garlic, cheese, onions and honey. Some compounds can also be detected in other foods, such as cooked beef, yeast, dried squid and leeks. It is the concerted efforts of these 120 compounds that create a super strong durian flavor.
Durian pulp mainly contains sulfur compounds, such as diallyl trisulfide, diallyl disulfide, diallyl tetrasulfide and so on. These sulfur compounds have a pungent taste, so they make durian give off a pungent taste.
The durian inner and outer peels are mainly composed of esters, which make durian smell like a mixture of fruits.
Durian contains palmitic acid, methyl palmitate, ethyl oleate and other organic compounds. They make durian very unique and have penetrating odor, which can be smelled from a few meters away.
2. Why do some people smell and others feel fragrant?
Everyone has a different sense of smell.
Durian coriander stinky tofu, jackfruit &hellip, … why some people smell good, some people smell too much, but what is secret is smell.
Scientists in the laboratory by comparing the genes of different people, found that any two people in the nose, about 30% of the olfactory receptors are different. This is why some people smell durian and feel fragrant, while others feel smelly and want to run.
3. What effect does durian have?
Its pungent smell activates immunity.
The pungent smell of durian is unbearable to many people, but Wang Liangju, a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, said that the pungent smell is good for human body. Pungent smell can activate human immune function, with the function of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. For women, dysmenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, can eat more durian, maternal eat durian help to discharge evil leakage.
But durian is not suitable for all people. For renal function is not good, diabetes patients are not suitable, constitution partial fire to eat less.
4. Understanding durian in gene level
Duke - researchers at the National University of Singapore School of medicine have finally found the cause of durian's peculiar smell: it's all the fault of the volatile sulfur biosynthesis gene!
Their main achievement is to complete the whole genome sequencing of durian for the first time.
What the researchers chose to sequence is Durio zibethinus, the most common durian, also known as' the king of fruits' (which is the origin of Durio). Among more than 200 kinds of durian on the market, they chose maoshanwang durian, which is the highest (expensive), the most top (expensive), the most delicious (expensive) and nicknamed 'fruit king' as the sequencing variety.
Durian's genome contains more than 46000 different genes, almost twice as many as that of humans, the researchers said. After studying the genes of leaves, roots, fruits and other parts of durian tree in detail, they found a sulfur metabolism gene named MGL methionine gamma lyases, which is used to control the production of volatile sulfur compounds (VSC). The odor of durian is caused by these sulfur compounds.
In addition, with the expression of fruit ripening genes, the sulfur compounds produced by fruit ripening genes increased significantly: the gene expression of a thiometabolic gene in mature fruit was 2000 times higher than that in other parts of durian tree.
The researchers speculate that durian's ability to produce large amounts of odorous VSC in the wild is most likely to attract elephants. As the main planter of durian (and no other animal can open the shell of durian, which can be called a big killer), wild elephants walk 3 to 6 kilometers every day for food. In the tropical rainforest environment, I'm afraid only durian with strong taste can spread the seeds and pass on the genes.
You know, durian and cocoa evolved from the same ancestor 65 million years ago. In tens of millions of years of evolution, one has become a bitter cocoa, the other has become a smelly sweet durian.
Finally, the research results will bring great economic benefits. After having a complete genome sequence of durian, people can try to find out the genes related to disease resistance and drought resistance, and try to improve the yield by strengthening these genes. People can also improve or invent the taste of durian fruit by modifying the genes related to taste.
In addition, because the price of durian varies greatly, this research result is likely to help develop test methods that can effectively identify durian varieties. For all evil counterfeiters, this is probably the worst result.