The Scent of Orchid Species

The odor can represent one of the strategies used by the plant to attract the pollinator insects. SPME (solid phase microextraction) coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry can give a significative help in order to identify the correct composition of the scent. This method does not require chemical treatment of the sample (such as the chemical extraction of labella), and, then, can represent a powerful method to understand the exact composition of the scent, without external contamination. In this book we are collected some of the results we obtained analyzing the scent of orchid species growing in Basilicata (Southern Italy).