TAKASAGO has published a paper entitled "The characteristic smell emitted from two scale insects, Ceroplastes japonicus and Ceroplastes rubens" in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry.

Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 84, (8) 1541-1545 (2020)

https://doi.org/10.1080/09168451.2020.1763156

Scale insects are small insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha, which are also known as an insect pest infesting various fruit trees including citrus families. Ceroplastes japonicus and Ceroplastes rubens belong to the family Coccidae which are widely distributed in Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and so on. When the former insect is crushed, the cherry-like sweet-and-sour odor is emitted. We focused on the characteristic odor of the insects and analyzed the volatile components by means of solvent extraction. As a result, we revealed γ-decalactone and sotolon having sweet aroma as characteristic odorants. This study was done in collaboration with Prof. Yoshinori Asakawa, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University.