Volatile substances from actinomycetes: their role in the odor pollution of water.

Abstract

It was in 1964 that we began our investigations of the character­ istic earthy odor of actinomycetes. Gas chromatography (G C) proved to be the method by which we were able first: to show that the earthy odor was caused by a single chemical substance which we named geosmin; "ge" from the Greek meaning earth and "osmeR meaning odor, next: to demonstrate the presence of geosmin in many actinomycete fermentation broths and lastly: to isolate enough for structure determination, (Gerber and Lechevalier, 1965).