Through the accidental contamination of a gas cylinder of HS, the importance of polysulfanes for flint, gun powder, and match odors was discovered. The hydrogen disulfane was prepared from disulfanediylbis[methyl(diphenyl)silane], and its odor descriptor was evaluated in the gas phase from a gas chromatograph coupled to an olfaction port. The occurrence of this compound in flint and pebbles was confirmed by analyses after derivatization with pentafluorobromobenzene. The occurrence of this sulfane was also confirmed in two dry white Swiss Chasselas wines, sorted by a large-scale sensory analysis from 80 bottles and evaluated by 62 wine professionals. The occurrence of disulfane was confirmed for the two wines described as the most mineral. Polysulfane comprises a class of compounds contributing to the flint odor and that may contribute to the wine mineral odor descriptor. Due to the high volatility and instability pure HSSH was not isolated but kept in solution and its odor profile was described by gas chromatography coupled to an olfaction port as flint, matches, and fireworks with a higher odor intensity compared to HS.

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Honey is a natural product with very diverse sensory attributes that are influenced by the flower source, the bee species, the geographic origin, the treatments and conditions during storage. This study aimed at describing 50 honeys from diverse flower sources in different continents and islands, stored under various conditions. Many articles have been published on the sensory characterization of honeys, thus a common list of attributes has been established, but it appeared to be poorly suited to describe a large number of honeys from around the world. This is why the novel and rapid sensory evaluation method, the Pivot Profile©, was tested, with the participation of 15 panelists during five sessions. The first objective was to obtain a sensory description of the 50 honeys that were tested. From 1152 distinct terms, a list of 29 sensory attributes was established and the attributes divided into three categories: color/texture (8 terms), aroma (16 terms), and taste (5 terms). At first, the honeys have been ranked according to their level of crystallization from fluid/liquid to viscous/hard. Then color was the second assessment factor of the variability. In terms of aroma, honeys from Africa were characterized by smoky, resin, caramel and dried fruit as opposed to floral and fruity, mainly for honeys from South America and Europe. Finally, the honeys were ranked according to their sweetness. The second objective of this study was to test the new sensory method, called Pivot Profile© which is used to describe a large number of products with interpretable results.

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