OOPS, the Ontology for Odor Perceptual Space: from molecular composition to sensory attributes of odor objects

When creating a flavor to elicit a specific odor object characterized by odor sensory attributes (OSA), expert perfumers or flavorists use mental combinations of odor qualities (OQ) such as Fruity, Green, Smoky. However, OSA and OQ are not directly related to the molecular composition in terms of odorants that constitute the chemical stimuli supporting odor object perception because of the complex non-linear integration of odor mixtures within the olfactory system. Indeed, single odorants are described with odor descriptors (OD), which can be found in various databases. Although classifications and aroma wheels studied the relationships between OD and OQ, the results are highly dependent of the studied products. Nevertheless, ontologies have proved to be very useful in sharing concepts across applications in a generic way but also to allow experts’ knowledge integration implying non-linear cognitive processes. In this paper we constructed the Ontology for Odor Perceptual Space (OOPS) to merge OD into a set of OQ best characterizing the odor further translated in a set of OSA thanks to expert knowledge integration. Results showed that OOPS can help to bridge molecular composition to odor perception and description as demonstrated in the case of wines.