News Chemistry

These are the chemicals that give teens pungent body odor

Carboxylic acids and steroids contribute fruity, musty and sandalwood-like scents

Close-up of a young woman's sweat-stained underarm area.

Researchers found two smelly steroids and a mix of pleasant and acrid carboxylic acids in samples of teenage body odor.

Olga Ihnatsyeva/Getty Images Plus

By Skyler Ware

Puberty changes just about everything. Bodies get taller, muscles get stronger — and often, body odor becomes more pungent. Now, scientists have identified some of the compounds that give teenagers their natural aroma.

Unlike that of infants and toddlers, teenage body odor has two smelly steroids and higher levels of carboxylic acids, researchers report March 21 in Communications Chemistry.