I continue the Molecular Gastronomy series that I started in this post with a discussion of the nose, a sensory organ crucial for sensing what we eat.
Whereas with the mouth we speak of “tastants” when we talk of the chemicals that excite our tastebuds, we use the word “odorant” to refer to the volatile chemical compounds that excite the receptors in our nose.
Specifically, the region that is affected by odorants is the olfactory epithelium region (Regio olfactoria) that is located on the roof of one’s nasal cavity (actually there are two, below each eye, inside the sinus).
This regio olfactoria is about 2.5 square centimeters in area and contains some 50 million primary sensory receptor cells.
