So this is a topic that I’ve been thinking about for a long while and I would like everyones info and feedback. For some reason there seems to be a ton of research on terpenes, but never on the actual smell elements that cannabis is most notorious for. I know it’s sulforous, and is agreed upon to be thiols/mercaptans, but as to what the actual compounds are seems to elude me. True terpenes uses benzyl mercaptan, and I have read that the actual molecules in a skunk’s spray are not the same as in cannabis, but not what the actual cannabis compounds are. I have a couple leads like the fact that methyl mercaptan (methanethiol) and furfuryl mercaptan occur in coffee, another plant. Methanethiol also occurs very commonly and is responsible for the smell of farts, bad breath, shit and rotting meat, and is known to occur in plants. I’m almost 100 that thats one of the compounds that adds to that thiol funk, but its not as “skunky” as the skunk smell in weed. So what are they? Articles and thoughts all appreciated
The crazy thing is consolidated chem will ship it to your house. One thousand points of warning follows:
THIS PRODUCT NEEDS A FUME HOOD x334
THIS PRODUCT IS VERY VOLITILE x333
THE CHEMICAL DUMP WILL CHARGE YOU $$$ AND ASK YOU QUESTIONS x333
Haha yeah its super flammable. I would definitely not buy it straight personally, I think I saw it in at least one of the TFA flavored herb mixes
They sell a diluted form in their “skunkify” htat taste like motor oil and grapefruit.
Haha oh shit… Ok thanks. Yeah I was scared away from that one from the lack of technical data sheets
" Introduction to aroma compounds in foods
J.K. Parker, in Flavour Development, Analysis and Perception in Food and Beverages, 2015
1.6.2 Thiols
Alkylthiols such as methanethiol, ethanethiol and propanethiol have low odour thresholds and sulfurous vegetable-like aromas. Recently, 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (59), which has long been known to be a sweaty, skunky aroma compound usually associated with the off-flavour of light-struck off-beer (Gros and Collin, 2012), was found to make an important contribution to the aroma of wine (San-Juan et al., 2012). It was also found to be one of the most odour-active compounds in pan-fried sesame (Tamura et al., 2011), in this instance being described as meaty and sulfurous.
As a series, the mercaptoketones are significant odour-active compounds. Mercaptopropanone imparts a pickled, meaty note (Guentert et al., 1990), whereas 2-mercapto-3-pentanone (60) and particularly 4-methyl-4-merapto-2-pentanone impart a strong blackcurrant or cat’s pee type aroma. Both 3-mercaptohexanol and 3-mercaptohexyl acetate have been shown to give a strong blackcurrant aroma to red wine (Rigou et al., 2014). A tropical mango note is obtained from the cyclic thiol 2,7,7-trimethylbicyclo[3.1.1]heptane-2-thiol (mercaptopinane) and intense grapefruitnotes are obtained from both enantiomers of p -menth-1-en-8-thiol (61), which have odour thresholds in water of < 0.0001 μg/kg (Demole et al., 1982)."
I’m discovering, also, that many thiols have fruity smell/flavours in certain forms.
I didn’t much care for that, once I opened the bottle I knew it belonged in the trash!
Does anyone have an ingredient list for that one?
All of that stuff is proprietary.
Whats everyones personal favorite terpenes to add in?
Hemp/cannabis terpenes. Im finally opening a vendor site centered around cartridge creation so the people who have terps can sell them and get reviews/ect
Last year i set up a small roto to extract terps from fresh bud. !st try i used dry ice & Iso in the cold trap and got terps with the “thiol” . 2nd try i put water & ice in the roto cold trap, then an external cold trap with dry ice/iso. That way i got great smelling terp oil with all the “thiol” collecting in the 2nd external cold trap. The “thiol” compound or group was a pure white crystal with a terrible sulphor smell. I had that cold trap off ice and open to atmos, the crystals melted into clear liquid. Came back to it several hours later and there was no trace of it, not even a residual smell.
Ive been searching for years for this mysterious “skunk”. While I can certainly see the logic with the “skunk” being a thiol, I also know that a molecule does not need be a thiol to smell skunky. There are alot of compounds that plants emit which contribute to humans perceived odor and are not terpene(oid)s, like the characteristic odorants in male armpit sweat. 2 of the three do not contain sulfur/thiol.
It may not be a terpene(oid), and it might not be a single molecule alone. When i talk of the “skunk” I mean 2 things, 1) that 90s skunk note that made a gram funk up a whole room, highly diffuse and LOUD. and 2) the undeniable odor of cannabis: found even in the crudest of crude (during heating) and the midsiest of mids (at least the smoke). This leads me to believe that what we are looking for is top note(s) and a base note(s), a lighter compound and a heaver compound. The lighter influences the aroma character (90s skunk vs cheese, vs OG, etc) and the heavier compound provides the undeniable cannabis odor which is generic, but unmistakable, generic cannabis base note.
I assume the compound(s) we are looking for have a low odor threshold and are small % of our mixtures. The heavier component could even be a degradation product(s) of something thats not volatile.
The skunk we are looking for could be a synergetic skunk, more than the sum of its parts. It could be something we just do not currently test for. It could be produced more or less at different stages in the plants growth. If it is a thiol, that should be easier to at least qualify its presence, likely more difficult to characterize the structure unless its in a database preexisting in other plants/animals.
This paper is interesting * Characterizing the Smell of Marijuana by Odor Impact of Volatile Compounds: An Application of Simultaneous Chemical and Sensory Analysis but a careful read with a critical mind will show that the method used is far from good science and should have been performed at least in triplicate. But the higher alcohols mentioned (C8,C9,C10) could be high impact, low % odorants that seem to be good leads.
I will share more as time allows this week, I could talk for days on this mystery and excited to see this discussion being held in a place where so many great minds are at the table.
Call it the Pharmers market
Someone just bought that domain too, whomever did, your moms a hoe!
So it IS elusive 
I know around fall here in Ontario when all the maple leaves fall off the trees, some people have leaf burns to get rid of the excess, and those burning leaf piles smell an awful lot like weed (not dank weed, but). I do know that butanethiol is used as a solvent, and that actual skunk compounds are used to disperse smell in perfume/cologne. In the same way that myrcene solutes with thc and crosses your blood brain barrier easier, the (potential) thiols could be carrying the more base notes easier into your nose. Just an idea. The description of the (potential) thiol compound disappearing that quick makes me think of it as potentially possessing those properties
Yea it left quickly, whatever it was…In concentrated form that stuff could gag a maggot.
It is possible that the specific skunk smell may not be a thiol at all and may just have a similar vibration.