VARIATION IN ODOR THRESHOLDS FOR L-CARVONE AND CINEOLE AND CORRELATIONS WITH SUPRATHRESHOLD INTENSITY RATINGS

Specific anosmias have been reported for l-canlone and cineole, two co mpounds of importance in food flavor perception. Detection thresholds were assessed in groups of 50+ individuals by ascending forced-choice tests conducted in quadruplicate. Wide individual differences in thres holds were observed. Within the same session, threshold correlations w ere in the range of +0.8 to +0.9, showing good short-term reliability. Correlations with suprathreshold ratings were moderate (in the range of r = -0.5) after subtraction of false positive ratings for blank sam ples. However, a cineole mixture experiment failed to show any differe nces between subgroups that were previously classified as high or row sensitivity on the basis of threshold measurements. Re-testing selecte d groups after a period of months showed considerable within-individua l variation in the thresholds, especially for l-carvene. These results call into question the stability and utility of threshold classificat ion for these two compounds.