Happy New Year, y'all
I found this line of research to be extremely interesting.
Appetitive floral odours prevent aggression in honeybees
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS Published 22 Dec 2015
Honeybees defend their colonies aggressively against intruders and release a potent alarm
pheromone to recruit nestmates into defensive tasks. The effect of floral odours on this
behaviour has never been studied, despite the relevance of these olfactory cues for the
biology of bees. Here we use a novel assay to investigate social and olfactory cues that drive
defensive behaviour in bees. We show that social interactions are necessary to reveal the
recruiting function of the alarm pheromone and that specific floral odours—linalool and
2-phenylethanol—have the surprising capacity to block recruitment by the alarm pheromone.
This effect is not due to an olfactory masking of the pheromone by the floral odours, but
correlates with their appetitive value. In addition to their potential applications, these findings
provide new insights about how honeybees make the decision to engage into defence and
how conflicting information affects this process.
We found that the floral compounds Lol and PhE
reduce the aggressive response triggered by the alarm
pheromone, thus exerting a calming effect on disturbed bees. We
further show that this effect directly correlates with the appetitive
value of the floral odours used as detractors from aggression: the
higher the appetitive value, the lesser the aggression elicited by a
concomitant exposure to alarm pheromone.
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Stress Repression in Restrained Rats by (R)-(-)-Linalool
J. Agric. Food Chem. 2009, 57, 5480–5485
Linalool (3,7-dimethyl-1,6-octadien-3-ol), a monoterpene
compound with a floral scent, has been identified in numerous
foods and flowers, including tea (3, 4), orange (5, 6), grape (7 ),
mango (8 ), lemon (9 ), tomato (10 ), basil (11 ), and lavender (12 ).
Its characteristic odor is important not only in the formulation of
a variety of fruit flavors and fragrances but also in eliciting certain
kinds of psychophysiological effects to which a relatively large
numbers of studies have been directed. It has been suggested that
the effects are elicited by its actions on the central nervous systems.
* * *
Biotechnological production of 2-phenylethanol
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2002) 59:1–8
2-Phenylethanol (2-PE) is an important flavour and fragrance compound with a rose-like odour. 2-PE occurs naturally in the essential oils of many flowers and plants, such as hyacinths, jasmine, narcissi and lilies. In most cases, concentrations are too low to justify extraction. One exception is rose oil, which – depending on variety – can contain up to 60% 2-PE. Most of the world’s annual production of several thousand tons is synthesised by chemical means.
* * *
Schwartz, S. Use of Herbal Remedies to Control Pet Behavior (Last Updated: 7-Aug-2000).
Among the botanical remedies available without prescription are the Bach Flower Essences®, first prepared in the 1930’s by a British physician named Edward Bach. He isolated 37 flower essences and a 38th essence made from the water of a natural spring with apparent healing effects. Bach observed that 5 of his "essences" were of particular value. He prepared a cocktail of 5 of these floral extracts (Rock Rose, Star of Bethlehem, Impatiens, Cherry Plum, Clematis) known as the Rescue Remedy®. This substance is marketed as a "natural reliever of everyday stress...proven to be as helpful with animals as it is with people". This claim is unfounded by published data.
Rescue Remedy® is recommended by The Bach Centre in England "for an immediate calming effect in any stressful situation" and for a variety of emotional or behavioral problems. These include: excessive vocalization (barking in dogs, hissing in cats), stress due to being left alone, shock, trauma or mistreatment, anxiety when adapting to new surrounding
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