More than 400 different volatile organic compounds are those that are released during the decomposition process of the human body , according to the recent study carried out by a team of scientists from the University of Leuven (Belgium). The research has been published in the journal Plos One .
What does death smell like? To answer this question, the researchers used 6 human corpses and 26 animal remains (pigs, birds, rabbits and turtles) on which they worked over a period of 6 months. Throughout this time, they took samples of both tissues and organs and placed them in different hermetically sealed containers. In the same way, they took samples of the gases emitted by each of these samples and analyzed the chemical compounds as the remains decomposed.
The results revealed that the human body, when entering the decomposition process, releases a very particular chemical mixture, which we could call “corpse smell”, made up of 452 volatile organic compounds (with only 5 different compounds compared to pigs and only 8 from the rest of animals).
“ The next step will be to see if the same compounds can be found in whole bodies, buried, that are decomposing in the ground . And see if trained dogs can respond to the search for compounds that are specific to decomposing human bodies ”, explains Eva Cuypers, leader of the study.
