VERIFIED CLAIM · CORRECTED

Green leaf volatiles after plant damage

Green leaf volatiles, six-carbon compounds found throughout vascular plants, are produced almost immediately when stresses such as insect feeding damage plant tissue, while their levels in intact tissue are low.

Scope

Supports the rapid release of green leaf volatiles from damaged tissue; the review itself does not describe their odour, and profiles vary across species and conditions.

Correction

The claim said green leaf volatiles help explain the green odour of cut or crushed plants. Its source, a review of their biology, describes their rapid release from damaged tissue but not their odour, so the claim now states only the rapid release and its scope says the odour is not described there.

Correction notice published 2 October 2026.

How this was found

Chemical composition. Compounds were identified or measured, without any assessment of their odour.

Source: review of earlier studies; chemistry work.

This describes how the evidence behind this claim was produced: for a review, by the studies it summarises. What the claim itself covers is its scope, above; how SmellBook checked the claim, where it could, is the next section.

How this claim was checked

SmellBook checked this claim against the source's own words, so that the claim says no more than the source supports. This does not repeat or re-test the study itself.

An editor read the abstract, found the claim said more than it supports, and narrowed the claim; the correction notice records what changed. Abstract from Europe PMC (ebi.ac.uk/europepmc).