AXILLARY MALODOR 17 5 HOOC glucuronate HOOC,• 0 5,{x-androst- 16-ene-3,1•-ol glucuronide androstenol 5,{x-androst-16-ene%sulfate Figure 2. Hydrolysis of steroid conjugates. HOSO 3 • sulfate These fluorogenic substrates are actually models of the steroid glucuronides and sul- fates. We therefore began a series of studies to test Eigen's view, and this paper describes those experiments. MATERIALS , B-glucuronidase from E. coli and aryl sulfatase from Aerobacter aerogenes, 4-methyl-

176 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS HOa$O CH 3 4-methylumbelliferyl surf ate aryl sulf HOOC HI :3 0 0 0 CH 3 4-methylumbelliferyl glucuronide curonidase HO CH3 4-methylumbelliferol Figure 3. Hydrolysis of 4-MUS and 4-MUG by aryl sulfatase and beta-glucuronidase. umbelliferyl glucuronide, 4-methylumbelliferyl sulfate, 4-methylumbelliferone, and D-saccharic acid-A-lactone were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. Sodium hexame- taphosphate (SPORIX) was obtained from International Sourcing. Apocrine secretion was obtained from Ivy Research Labs (Philadelphia, PA). The fluid was collected according to the method described by Labows et al. (10). Eleven subjects were used. The axillary area was shaved, washed with a 0.1% solution of Triton X-100, rinsed with water, blotted dry, then rinsed with hexane. An intradermal injection of 0.1 ml of 1:2000 adrenaline was performed to stimulate the apocrine glands. Micropi- pettes (10 •1) were placed directly against the skin to collect the droplets of apocrine secretion. Samples were frozen until ready for use. Samples were eluted from the capil- lary tubes with 0.1 M Tris buffer, pH 7.0, for use in odor-generation studies. Lipo- philic diphtheroid cultures were provided by Dr. John Labows at Monell Chemical Senses Center (Philadelphia, PA) they were cultures of strains originally isolated from human axillae at Monell. Zinc glycinate was prepared by the method of Dubsky and Rabas (16): 52.5 g (0.6 mol) glycine and 20.35 g (0.25 mol) ZnO were stirred in 300 g water at 75 C until a clear