Does the natural smell of the palm of a hand allow us to discern if it belongs to a man or a woman?

In police crime investigations, dogs’ olfactory abilities have long been used to identify and track people by scent. However, while such work with dogs is well established, very little progress has been made in analyzing human odor profiles in the laboratory.

In a new study, a team made up of, among others, Chantrell Frazier and Kenneth Furton, both from Florida International University in the United States, have used an analysis technique called mass spectrometry to analyze the volatile compounds (odor) present in the palms of the hands of 60 individuals, half men and half women.

After identifying the compounds in each sample, the study authors performed a statistical analysis to see if they could determine the sex of the individual based on their odor profile.

The analysis successfully predicted a person’s gender with an accuracy rate of 96.67%.

Robberies, assaults and rapes are crimes that are often committed with their hands, which is why they can leave very valuable traces at the crime scene for scientific police.

Taking the latter into account, the new study shows that it is possible to determine the sex of a person based on the smell of their hands. Furthermore, previous research on human odor indicates that olfactory compounds can also reveal a person’s age and some other traits.

Artist’s recreation of the concept of distinguishing between a man and a woman by the smell of the palm of a hand. (Image: Eduardo Merille / Florida International University.)

With further validation, the chemical and statistical analyzes carried out in the new study could be used to uncover many details about a potential criminal without requiring anything more than odor profiles left at a crime scene by the palms of their hands.

The results of the study have been made public through the academic journal PLoS ONE. The reference of the work is the following: Frazier CJG, Gokool VA, Holness HK, Mills DK, Furton KG (2023) Multivariate regression modeling for gender prediction using volatile organic compounds from hand odor profiles via HS-SPME-GC-MS. PLOS ONE 18(7): e0286452. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)