What does a durian smell like?

Depending on the individual smelling the durian fruit, its smell can range from skunk-like, burnt-like, garlic to fruit and honey. A study by scientists from the German Research Center for Food Chemistry has analyzed that the scent of the durian comes from a combination of 50 discrete compounds.

In an experiment in 2012 on aroma extract taken from durians grown in Thailand, eight of the 50 compounds found had never been detected in durian. Of the 50 compounds, four compounds had also previously been unknown to the scientific community. Each compound can be associated with a unique order, but none individually resulted in the strong scent associated with durian.