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Scentless Boronia

Tim:

It may just be that you have an anosmia for the particular components in the
essential oils of Boronia.  Anosmias are the odor equivalents of specific
color blindness.  Some examples:

One out of nine/ten cats can't smell nepetolactone, the active ingredient in
catnip, and just treat catnip as another plant.

Some people can't smell irone, the very potent ionone-like terpene found in
iris.  Others have a reverse anosmia to some of the ionones (oil components
of violets), and can smell either alpha- or beta-ionone at much lower
concentrations than others.  

Some of the other ionone-like compounds like megastigmatriene (from Boronia)
may behave similarly. 

Most people lose their ability to detect scents as they age.  A warning sign
is the increasing effect of olifactory fatigue.  It takes progressively less
time to stop smelling certain odors, and longer to recover one's ability to
smell lower concentrations.

Rich Dufresne
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