aceMaking scents: could AI help perfumers take pressure off endangered plants?
Many of the world’s most expensive perfumes begin with a wounded tree. When some Aquilaria trees are damaged, they produce a dark, fragrant resin that becomes agarwood, or oudh – an ingredient so valuable that wild trees have been illegally felled in its pursuit. The result has devastated wild Aquilaria populations. But what if perfumers could create the smell without cutting down the tree? With the help of AI, scientists are learning to predict how molecules that have never been made will smell, reconstructing…
AI trained on millions of human smell responses can predict and reconstruct fragrances from tiny samples, enabling lab production of compounds from endangered plants without repeated harvesting.
Recreating endangered plant scents with AI and biotechnology risks greenwashing because synthetic versions do not save the species or eliminate demand for wild-harvested material.
Evidence
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-06
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-1301, v1: “Making scents: could AI help perfumers take pressure off endangered plants?.” Truvace, 2026-10-07. /record/TRV-2026-1301 (accessed at citation time). sha256 8da3448546d92144…
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