Odor Divergence

Odor divergence is a ratio that tells us the magnitude difference by which an odor of one molecule in an enantiomeric pair differs from the odor of the other.

Enantiomers can have similar odors such as (3R)-(-)-linalool/(3S)-(+)-linalool which both smell lemony.

However, enantiomers can also have different odors. Such in the case again of carvone, (R) carvone smells like spearmint while (S) carvone smells like caraway.

Enantiomeric Pair	Odor
(R) linalool
(S) linalool
(R) carvone
(S) carvone

The odor divergence for the enantiomeric pair for linalool would be small since thier odors are similar. For carvone, the odor diverence would be large.