Durian smells like whatever the person holding it has decided. The record includes rotten onions, turpentine, sewage, stale vomit, used surgical swabs, skunk spray, a gym sock, and, from other people, a pleasantly sweet fragrance. All of those are in Wikipedia, which is how you know this is a serious institution.
The short answer
Rotten onions and turpentine on top, sweet custard underneath, depending on the fruit and the nose. It is two smells at once: fruity esters and ketones, plus organosulfur compounds, including two thiols from the same chemical family as skunk spray and the gas leak additive.
Interactive, 8 cards
Durian or Stenchi? 🍈
Each card is either a real description of durian or the sales copy for one of our fictional deodorants. Pick one.
“Like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory.”
The real reviews, with sources
Five real accounts of durian, oldest first. These are the ones from the game, plus a fifteenth century traveler. Quotations are as given in Wikipedia's Durian article.
“Inside there are five things like elongated oranges, and resembling thick butter, with a combination of flavours.”
A fifteenth century traveler describes durian in the tone of someone filling in a customs form. The passage quoted on Wikipedia does not mention the smell, which means either it was mild or he had been at sea a long time.
“A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes.”
Wallace was at first reluctant to try it because of the aroma. Then he ate one in Borneo “out of doors, I at once became a confirmed Durian eater.” Out of doors is the part of that sentence we recommend.
“To those not used to it, it seems at first to smell like rotten onions, but immediately after they have tasted it they prefer it to all other food.”
The first review of a stinking food that is mostly about how good it is. Every restaurant in the world wants this review.
Eating durian is “like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory.”
The sentence is a complete short story, and the only place where blancmange has ever been a warning.
“Its odor is best described as pig-excrement, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock.”
The gym sock is the garnish. Whoever plates that has done this before.
Why it smells like that
Per Wikipedia, hundreds of phytochemicals are responsible for the flavor and aroma of durian. They include esters, ketones, alcohols (primarily ethanol) and organosulfur compounds. In one study of several varieties the ester with the highest content was ethyl 2-methylbutanoate. Esters are a family of molecules often behind fruity smells, which is the sweet half of the story.
The other half is sulfur. Headspace gas chromatography found diethyl trisulfide, diethyl disulfide, dithiolane, dimethyl sulfide and 3-methylthiazolidine. The durian genome includes genes for methionine gamma-lyases, which regulate the release of methanethiol and ethanethiol, and those two contribute to the fetid odor. Methanethiol is also one of the sulfur compounds Wikipedia lists in human flatus, which has its own field report.
Ethanethiol is also a thiol, the same kind of molecule behind skunk spray (see the skunk field report). Wikipedia notes it may be added to otherwise odorless gases such as LPG to warn of gas leaks. That is why what happens in the next section is not a coincidence.
A durian has been mistaken for a gas leak at least twice
In April 2018, around 500 students and staff were evacuated from a library at RMIT in Melbourne. Forty firefighters and specialists attended. They found a rotting durian stashed in a cupboard, and the smell had gone through the air conditioning (Yahoo News, citing the Herald Sun).
In May 2019, the University of Canberra library was evacuated on a suspected gas leak. An hour later the university said it was a durian fruit left in a garbage can, which, as NPR put it, was apparently not enough to contain the odor from this infamous fruit.
The serious part: if you smell gas, you cannot tell it from a durian by nose, and you should not try. Leave the building and call your gas utility or emergency number from outside. The fruit can be investigated after.
Not every durian smells the same
Wikipedia says different species and cultivars vary markedly in aroma, which may be why the descriptions are all over the place. Some of the variety is on purpose.
- Standard durian (D. zibethinus). The one most people mean. The strong smell, the king of fruits, the bans on transit.
- Red durian (D. dulcis). Deep caramel flavor with a turpentine odor.
- Red-fleshed durian (D. graveolens). Emits a fragrance of roasted almonds. Same genus, different press release.
- ‘Chantaburi No. 3’. Develops its odor about three days after picking, so it ships odorless and arrives with an opinion.
- ‘Chantaburi No. 1’, ‘Long Laplae’, ‘Lin Laplae’. Bred without the characteristic odor, the first by a Thai government scientist who crossbred more than ninety varieties to get there. They removed the one thing everyone remembers.
Why trains and hotels have rules
The odor may linger for several days, and Wikipedia reports that some hotels and public transportation services in Southeast Asia, such as in Singapore and Bangkok, have banned the fruit. The Stenchi Smell Index has it at #5. A fruit that transit systems write rules about gets more oversight than our products do.
The smell also works on animals. Wikipedia says it can be detected half a mile away by animals, who are lured in, including black hornbills, wild boars, sun bears, orangutans, elephants and even tigers. Some swallow the seeds and carry them off, so the smell is, in the fruit's own terms, a successful advertisement.
Other durian facts that are not about the smell
- The name is a warning. It comes from the Malay word duri, thorn. The species name zibethinus refers to the civet, and there is disagreement over whether Linnaeus meant that civets love the fruit or that the fruit smells like a civet.
- Hardhats are worn to pick it. The fruit is heavy, covered in thorns and can fall from a significant height. A common saying is that a durian has eyes, because it supposedly never falls in daylight when people might be hurt.
- There is a bald one. In 1989 Malaysia registered a spineless clone, D172, called Durian Botak, Bald Durian.
- A fallen durian is good news. In Malay and Indonesian the saying mendapat durian runtuh, getting a fallen durian, means a windfall. Hardhats are still recommended.
Questions people ask from the hallway
What does durian smell like?
It depends on the fruit and the nose. Comparisons on record include rotten onions, turpentine, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs, and the writer Richard Sterling put it as pig-excrement, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. Other people find the fragrance pleasantly sweet, and Alfred Russel Wallace said that for the flavor, a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea.
Why does durian smell so bad?
Hundreds of compounds are involved, including esters, ketones, alcohols and organosulfur compounds. Headspace analysis found diethyl trisulfide, diethyl disulfide, dimethyl sulfide and others. The fruit also has genes that regulate the release of methanethiol and ethanethiol, which contribute to the fetid odor.
Why is durian banned on trains and in hotels?
Because the odor is strong and can linger for several days. Wikipedia reports that this has led some hotels and public transportation services in Southeast Asia, such as in Singapore and Bangkok, to ban the fruit.
Has a durian ever been mistaken for a gas leak?
Yes, at least twice. In April 2018 around 500 students and staff were evacuated from a library at RMIT in Melbourne after a rotting durian in a cupboard sent its smell through the air conditioning, and about 40 firefighters and specialists attended. In May 2019 the University of Canberra library was evacuated on a suspected gas leak, and an hour later the university said it was a durian left in a garbage can. If you smell gas and have not been near a durian, treat it as gas.
Is there a durian that does not smell?
Nearly. Thai breeding has produced 'Chantaburi No. 1', a cultivar without the characteristic odor, and 'Chantaburi No. 3', which develops its odor about three days after picking so it can travel odorless. In 2012 two odorless cultivars, 'Long Laplae' and 'Lin Laplae', were presented in Uttaradit province. Other species smell different, too: red durian (D. dulcis) has a turpentine odor with a deep caramel flavor, and red-fleshed durian (D. graveolens) smells of roasted almonds.
Why do some people love the smell and others cannot stand it?
Nobody has a tidy answer. Wikipedia notes that people in Southeast Asia with frequent exposure to durian can easily tell the sweet-like scent of its ketones and esters from rotten, putrescine-like odors, which come from volatile amines and fatty acids, while some individuals cannot separate the two and find the fruit noxious. A writer quoted by Wallace in 1856 said it seems at first to smell like rotten onions, but people prefer it to all other food right after tasting it.
Does durian smell like a skunk?
Skunk spray is on the list of things people have compared it to, next to the civet, sewage and stale vomit. The chemistry overlaps: skunk spray is mostly thiols, and the durian releases two of them, methanethiol and ethanethiol. The durian also carries esters, a family often behind fruity smells, which is how the same fruit manages sweet and sewage.
Can a durian hurt you?
Not with the smell. The fruit itself is heavy, armed with sharp thorns and can fall from a significant height, so hardhats are worn when collecting it. A common saying is that a durian has eyes, because it supposedly never falls during daylight hours when people may be hurt. We could not find a reliable count of injuries, so we will not give you a number.
Worse than durian?
Durian is #5 on the Stenchi Smell Index. These are the other sulfur-flavored entries.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Durian
- Wikipedia: Ethanethiol
- Yahoo News: A Rotting Durian Fruit Prompted a Gas Leak Scare and Evacuations on a Melbourne College Campus (Laignee Barron, April 30, 2018)
- NPR Morning Edition via Prairie Public: Smell Forces Library At Australian University To Temporarily Evacuate (May 14, 2019)
Quotations are as given in Wikipedia's Durian article; where a quotation began mid sentence, the first letter is capitalized. The library evacuations are as reported by the sources above. The jokes, the game and the Stenchi products are ours. This is a humor page, not medical, safety or horticultural advice. Stenchi products are fictional and cannot be bought.
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