ABSTRACT
A pivotal part in comprehending the usefulness of human scent evidence in practical canine applications lies in an eort to understand the composition of body secretions that make it possible for dogs to identify people based on their odor. e sources of body odor contributing to an individual’s “odor signature” are numerous. is human odor generation can be described as a combination of volatile compounds released from the body, which are directly aected by genetics, environment, gender, age, and physiologic body processes. Due to the diverse composition of odor-producing sources, it is important to review the dierent variables that together encompass and generate the complex odorant mixture ultimately referred to as human scent. e following sections will explore human scent from a physiological viewpoint depicting the inuence of genetics on human odor, skin glandular activity as well as axillary odor research that together provide the building blocks as to the intricate denition of human odor as an individualizing characteristic.
