this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 147 points 2 days ago (12 children)

Wording is funky. To clarify:

The rain smell is due to a compound called geosmin. The bacteria that produces it is Streptomyces.

When I taught microbiology lab, I would grow a petri dish of Streptomyces during one particular class and have the students smell it

[–] Shellbeach@lemmy.world 78 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (10 children)

You mean.... You can ... Bottle up petrichore ??? How come is there no wide range of perfume/candle/lotion and whatnot?

Can I make it at home, if so, how would I go about it with everyday items? Can streptomyces cause health issues?

[–] drre@feddit.org 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've never smelled the stuff but apparently the smell of rain is something people try to bottle.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/smell-of-rain-kannauj-perfume-mitti-attar-india

[–] Comment105@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's the romanticized, traditional Indian cowshit mix trying to approximate it. (Not doing a disparaging stereotype here, that's just literally how the article says they make it.)

I'd be surprised if it actually contains the compound we're talking about.

[–] drre@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

i Kind of doubt it. in a video i saw if the process they were using hardfired bricks. i don't believe any organic compounds would survive the heat.

(dung might be a better term for what you were referring to. i seem to remember that because of the way they feed their cattle the dung has a very high fibre content which makes it a good source for building material. it's nowhere as gross as the diarrhea like consistency we get from cows in Europe)

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