This fragrance company is trying to recreate the scent of extinct blooms
Working together with the Harvard University Herbaria — home to over five million botanical specimens — Future Society has successfully sequenced the genetic codes of preserved plants, some of which date back more than 150 years. Six of them have already been made into perfumes, with signature notes ranging from the green to woody and floral.
Take the orbexilum stipulatum, a herbaceous, flowering plant that grew on Rock Island in the shallowest part of the old Falls of the Ohio and is last known to have flowered in 1881. The plant is thought to have been wiped out after the eradication of buffalo that used to migrate through the area, meaning its seeds were no longer dispersed far and wide. Then in the 1920s, the entire area was flooded by dams, submerging all hope for it.
We used this technology… to provide a glimpse into what these extinct flowers might have smelled like.
Future Society founder and CEO Jasmina Aganovic
'We set out to make scents we've never smelled before and fragrances that were previously not possible to make,' said Jasmina Aganovic, founder and CEO of Future Society and its parent company Arcaea, in a video interview with CNN.
The six fragrances, Aganovic explained, have been made possible by DNA sequencing. 'It's similar (to the) technology that was used on ancestry.com and 23andme whereby users spit into a tube, send it away and wait to find out about their genetics,' she said. 'We used this technology on preserved plant specimens from extinct flowers, searching for scent molecules which started to provide a glimpse into what these extinct flowers might have smelled like.'
Aganovic didn't set out with a grand plan for a certain flower she was desperate to smell, but wanted to demonstrate how new biological advancements could be used in the beauty sector.
In a 'not very romantic' fashion, the Future Society team looked at how many specimens existed in the Harvard University Herbaria, how many samples they could get and which of those would be reconstructible, because DNA degrades over time, she said. 'Ultimately we didn't know if this de-extincting exercise was going to work, so it was a numbers game to try it out.'
On the process, Aganovic explained: 'The actual specimens are small little snippets brought back to the lab and they undergo a series of chemical reactions to degrade them and ensure that all that's left is the DNA.'
Part of the data that first emerged was very raw, Aganovic said. 'It smelled like something went through a lawnmower, because you're getting everything — not just the fragrant petals, you're getting the plant's stem, the leaves, who knows what… You don't just get the genetics for the flower in the petal, right? It's all of the genetics.'
In other words, recreating an extinct bloom's scent is not, Aganovic points out, an exact science. Not least because scent is highly complex; for example, a jasmine flower or a rose is composed of hundreds — if not thousands — of different scent molecules and chemical compounds.
'We can draw an analogy to our own genetics,' explained Aganovic. 'We carry two copies of genes, one from our biological father, one from our biological mother, but even though our body carries those genes, it doesn't express both. What the body chooses to express is exactly the nuance here.' When the extinct plant DNA was sequenced, many different genes for the scent molecules were exposed — but not all 'turned on' when they were put into yeast, a living organism, she said. 'That narrowed down the olfactory profile and gave more confidence around the direction that the physical flower went in.'
While Aganovic and her team were left with this genetic evidence, there was still work to do to interpret it. 'Having the DNA in yeast doesn't brew this beautiful, fine fragrance, it just gives us the scent profile. The actual blending and composition relies on perfumers' existing notes and compounds from their own libraries,' Aganovic explained.
Future Society does not use the DNA to regrow the extinct blooms. There are also scant — and subjective — records available. If no one living has experienced the flower first-hand, how does Future Society determine which flowers warrant a fragrance?
'This is what I really love about this work,' said Aganovic, who is a scientist by training but has been working in the beauty industry since 2014. 'It wasn't just down to the arrogance of science. While we had the data, we actually relied on different areas of expertise including perfumers and their knowledge of aroma chemicals and botany to look at the lineage of these plants, what living plants they were related to, where they were growing and what their environment was like… These elements all gave hints to how we might reconstruct the smell through a mixture of art and science.'
Indeed, Future Society worked with perfumers from famed scent houses Givaudan (which Arcaea also counts as an investor, alongside Chanel and Olaplex) and Robertet to source a mixture of fragrance notes — synthetic, natural, and bioengineered — inspired by the scent molecules of the extinct flowers to create the blends. The resulting scents are, according to the brand's website, 'tributes to' what the plants could have smelled like.
Future Society worked with three different perfumers for their recreated scents, each of whom viewed the data through their own unique lens. Olivia Jan, who worked on the Grassland Opera fragrance imagined the scent of the herbaceous orbexilum stipulatum flower. 'The Orbexilum stipulatum flower grew near a waterfall, so I tried to make something wet, green, and lush,' Jan told Harper's Bazaar USA in 2023.
Perfumer Daniela Andrier, who formulated two fragrances for Future Society, wanted to tell the story of extinction from the perspective of the Earth. The Reclaimed Flame scent is a tribute to South Africa's extinct Leucadendron grandiflorum, which last bloomed in 1960, while Invisible Woods focuses on India's extinct Wendlandia angustifolia, which went extinct in 1917 due to drought. '(Andrier's) palette of ingredients relied on earthy, herbal ingredients because that was the feeling she wanted to evoke,' explained Aganovic.
Meanwhile, Jérôme Epinette formulated three fragrances, including the bestselling scent Solar Canopy, which is based on the hibiscadelphus wilderianus, a hibiscus flower from Hawaii which died out in 1912 due to deforestation. Epinette was fascinated by time travel, and wanted the wearer to feel like they were there with the flower in the forest or on the mountain. 'From the DNA data, we knew there were some earthy tones in there, hence the fragrance has vetiver (the scent of which some liken to dry grass or wet woods), but there were also some juicier, fruitier things — elements of lychee, some magnolia, some sour notes too,' added Aganovic.
While portions of the technology used in these projects are similar to the work being done by companies such as Colossal (who in April claimed to have brought the dire wolf back from extinction), Aganovic is keen to keep her distance. 'We are not fully resurrecting these flowers. We are a beauty company focused on self expression through personal scent, and I know that it's not sexy like, 'oh, we brought back the wolves,' but I think it's important to acknowledge,' she said.
'This de-extinction stuff (makes me) feel uneasy because… I definitely get whiffs of 'in the future, we will just de-extinct things,'' Aganovic continued. 'We can't be so arrogant to think we can just 'science' our way out of our problems, because sure, you know, technology means we can bring species back, but what we can't bring back is the relationship that certain populations had with that plant. Ultimately the human relationship with our environment is not just copy pasteable.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
a minute ago
- Washington Post
Americans get more than half their calories from ultraprocessed foods, CDC report says
Most Americans get more than half their calories from ultraprocessed foods, those super-tasty, energy-dense foods typically full of sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, according to a new federal report . Nutrition research has shown for years that ultraprocessed foods make up a big chunk of the U.S. diet, especially for kids and teens. For the first time, however, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed those high levels of consumption, using dietary data collected from August 2021 to August 2023. The report comes amid growing scrutiny of such foods by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who blames them for causing chronic disease. 'We are poisoning ourselves and it's coming principally from these ultraprocessed foods,' Kennedy told Fox News earlier this year. Overall, about 55% of total calories consumed by Americans age 1 and older came from ultraprocessed foods during that period, according to the report. For adults, ultraprocessed foods made up about 53% of total calories consumed, but for kids through age 18, it was nearly 62%. The top sources included burgers and sandwiches, sweet baked goods, savory snacks, pizza and sweetened drinks. Young children consumed fewer calories from ultraprocessed foods than older kids, the report found. Adults 60 and older consumed fewer calories from those sources than younger adults. Low-income adults consumed more ultraprocessed foods than those with higher incomes. The results were not surprising, said co-author Anne Williams, a CDC nutrition expert. What was surprising was that consumption of ultraprocessed foods appeared to dip slightly over the past decade. Among adults, total calories from those sources fell from about 56% in 2013-2014 and from nearly 66% for kids in 2017-2018. Williams said she couldn't speculate about the reason for the decline or whether consumption of less processed foods increased. But Andrea Deierlein, a nutrition expert at New York University who was not involved in the research, suggested that there may be greater awareness of the potential harms of ultraprocessed foods. 'People are trying, at least in some populations, to decrease their intakes of these foods,' she said. Concern over ultraprocessed foods' health effects has been growing for years, but finding solutions has been difficult. Many studies have linked them to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, but they haven't been able to prove that the foods directly cause those chronic health problems. One small but influential study found that even when diets were matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and micronutrients, people consumed more calories and gained more weight when they ate ultraprocessed foods than when they ate minimally processed foods. Research published this week in the journal Nature found that participants in a clinical trial lost twice as much weight when they ate minimally processed foods — such as pasta, chicken, fruits and vegetables — than ultraprocessed foods, even those matched for nutrition components and considered healthy, such as ready-to-heat frozen meals, protein bars and shakes. Part of the problem is simply defining ultraprocessed foods. The new CDC report used the most common definition based on the four-tier Nova system developed by Brazilian researchers that classifies foods according to the amount of processing they undergo. Such foods tend to be 'hyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber and contain little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners and unhealthy fats,' the CDC report said. U.S. health officials recently said there are concerns over whether current definitions 'accurately capture' the range of foods that may affect health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department recently issued a request for information to develop a new, uniform definition of ultraprocessed foods for products in the U.S. food supply. In the meantime, Americans should try to reduce ultraprocessed foods in their daily diets, Deierlein said. For instance, instead of instant oatmeal that may contain added sugar, sodium, artificial colors and preservatives, use plain oats sweetened with honey or maple syrup. Read food packages and nutrition information, she suggested. 'I do think that there are less-processed options available for many foods,' she said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CNN
a minute ago
- CNN
More than half of the calories US kids and adults consume are from ultraprocessed foods
Most of the American diet is comprised of calories from ultraprocessed foods, which have been linked to a myriad of poor health outcomes and are a key target in US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s agenda to Make America Health Again. A new report published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that there has been some improvement in recent years, but ultraprocessed foods still account for more than half of the calories consumed by both children and adults in the United States. From August 2021 to August 2023, about 53% of the calories consumed by adults in the US came from ultraprocessed foods, according to the CDC report. The share was even higher among children, who got about 62% of their diet from ultraprocessed foods on average. That's a decrease from 2017-2018 when ultraprocessed foods comprised 56% of the adult diet and nearly 66% among children. Ultraprocessed foods are typically high in calories, added sugar, sodium and saturated fat and low in fiber. They have been linked to weight gain and obesity and the development of chronic conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and depression. Such foods may even shorten life. 'There are no health benefits associated with eating ultraprocessed foods,' said Dr. Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist with Environmental Working Group, a health advocacy organization. She did not review the new CDC report. Calories from ultraprocessed foods can add up quickly because they tend to be extra tasty and dense, with a large amount of calories in small amount of food, experts say. 'It's unrealistic to not eat any ultraprocessed foods,' Stoiber said, referencing celebrations that call for cake and ice cream and the general value in enjoying food. 'But as much as we can shift our diet to whole foods, that's going to be better for us.' People also eat what is available to them, experts say. Up to 70% of the US food supply is made up of ultraprocessed foods, and they're often cheaper than making a dish from scratch. The new CDC report found that diets of the wealthiest adults had a significantly smaller share of calories from ultraprocessed foods than those with lower family incomes. But there was not as much variation among children based on family income. Dr. Jamie Chriqui, a senior associate dean at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health who has spent decades researching nutrition policy, says that many low-income food assistance programs are centered around children – and there is precedent for restricting ultraprocessed foods in these social programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – previously known as food stamps – is an exception, she said. SNAP is geared more toward the whole family, and there has historically been little restriction on how those benefits are used. With SNAP, 'there is no incentive to purchase one thing over another,' said Chriqui, who did not review the new CDC report. 'If I'm a family and I'm using my SNAP dollar, I'm going to purchase whatever I can to extend the money as far as I can,' she said. 'So if they are in a community where healthier options are more expensive than the ultraprocessed foods, they're probably going to default to the ultraprocessed foods.' Kennedy has encouraged states to submit waivers that would restrict certain foods from SNAP benefits, with at least a dozen states filing for changes so far this year. Still, ultraprocessed foods have comprised a significantly larger share of the diets of children than adults in the US for at least the past decade, according to the new CDC report. In May, a MAHA report on children's health identified ultraprocessed foods as a key driver of the 'chronic disease epidemic in children.' The report was rife with errors, including citations to some studies that didn't exist, but experts agree that children are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of ultraprocessed foods. 'When you're young, that is when you are forming food habits which you're likely to have throughout the rest of your life. So it's a critical time of development that sets you up for all the rest of your life stages,' Stoiber said. 'If that's what you're used to, you may continue to eat those foods…leading to not just the short-term exposure, but a longer-term exposure.' Children are also often targeted with advertising for these foods, she said. Burgers and other sandwiches were found to be the largest contributors of calories from ultraprocessed foods for both kids and adults, followed by sweet bakery products. Together, these two foods accounted for nearly one in every seven calories consumed in the average American diet, according to the CDC report. The report also found savory snacks and sweetened beverages to be among the top calorie contributors, along with pizza for children. For the new CDC report, dietary habits were based on responses to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, with foods assessed according to NOVA, a recognized system of categorizing foods by their level of processing. Last month, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture announced plans to collect more information and data on ultraprocessed foods with a goal to help establish a more formal definition. 'Ultra-processed foods are driving our chronic disease epidemic,' Kennedy said in a statement at the time. 'We must act boldly to eliminate the root causes of chronic illness and improve the health of our food supply. Defining ultra-processed foods with a clear, uniform standard will empower us even more to Make America Healthy Again.' CNN's Sandee LaMotte and Andrea Kane contributed to this report.
Washington Post
a minute ago
- Washington Post
Harvard scientists say research could be set back years after funding freeze
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard University professor Alberto Ascherio's research is literally frozen. Collected from millions of U.S. soldiers over two decades using millions of dollars from taxpayers, the epidemiology and nutrition scientist has blood samples stored in liquid nitrogen freezers within the university's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The samples are key to his award-winning research, which seeks a cure to multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. But for months, Ascherio has been unable to work with the samples because he lost $7 million in federal research funding, a casualty of Harvard's fight with the Trump administration.
