Fragrances that regulate appetite – research from the LIDER program at UPWr

Supermarkets encourage shopping with the smell of freshly baked bread. Before Christmas, shopping centres smell like cloves, cinnamon and baked apples. We have known for a long time that our noses have a great influence on our behaviour. Jacek Łyczko, a doctoral student at the UPWr Department of Chemistry decided to use this knowledge and create innovative, safe and easy-to-use appetite regulators, working both ways.

- About 18% of our society are now people over 65. Many elderly people of weak health, especially those staying in various care institutions, have a problem with reduced appetite. 53% of Polish society are overweight or obese. At the same time, the market of dietary supplements regulating appetite is huge – we buy over 625 million packages of such substances annually. The problem is that either their effectiveness is debatable or they cause many side effects – says Jacek Łyczko, who received a grant of almost PLN 1.5 million for his research under the LIDER program of the National Centre for Research and Development.

The program is not only about research funding, but it is also supports young scientists in building their skills of independent planning and managing their own research teams when carrying out projects the results of which can be implemented in the economy.

The team selected and managed by the PhD student of prof. Antoni Szumny are mainly young researchers under the age of 30. Using natural and safe essential oils and food flavours, they will create special aroma combinations on blotters (cardboard strips that we use in perfumeries) in order to increase or decrease appetite.

First, in an extensive survey, the team will check what aromas Poles associate with tasty food. Later, they will compose appropriate smells, check them chemically, present them to sensory experts for analysis, and use magnetic resonance to test their influence on appropriate centres of the human brain. They will also conduct a morphological analysis of leftovers from meals that the subjects will eat after smelling the blotters – this will allow to determine whether, for example, a given product can reduce appetite for starch additives and increase the appetite for protein or vegetables. The research will last 3 years.

- Appetite reducing strips will by no means smell unpleasant. Our goal is not to deter people from eating or cause negative associations or guilt in people with too much body weight. We want to induce a feeling of fullness, which will be associated with eating a delicious, heavy dessert, with an afternoon coffee or relaxation after dinner. We also want to direct their appetite towards healthier products, so that they would choose, for example, wholemeal bread, instead of a white roll. Thanks to this, they will eat less and better – says Jacek Łyczko, who deals with fragrances also in his doctorate – he is looking for methods of drying medicinal and spice plants in order to obtain the highest possible aromatic value. And within the Preludium grant he assesses the correlation between plant material, composition of its essential oils and quality of smells, using different varieties of mint as an example.

- I am also a member of the WBVG research team led by prof. Andrzej Białowiec who really motivates us to write and submit grant applications. When, in the middle of summer holidays, it turned out that I had qualified for the second stage of the LIDER, and it was going to be an interview, during which I would have to present my idea in 5 minutes and which would decide if I would get the project, I wrote to the team asking if they would like to hear my presentation, have a chat, maybe give some advice. And although everyone was somewhere on holiday, they connected with me, shared their opinions, suggested what to improve, what to change and what was OK. This is something I really appreciate in a team.