From http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=35284&page=2
Humans possess three major types of skin glands--sebaceous glands, eccrine (or sweat) glands, and apocrine glands. Sebaceous glands are most common on the face and forehead but occur around all of the body's openings, including eyelids, ears, nostrils, lips, and nipples. This placement is particularly handy, as the secretions of these glands kill potentially dangerous microorganisms. They also contain fats that keep skin supple and waterproof and, on the downside, cause acne. Little is known, however, about how sebaceous glands contribute to human body odor.
The sweat glands exude water and salt and are non-odorous in healthy people. That leaves the third potential source of a human pheromone--the apocrine gland. Apocrine glands hold special promise as the source of smells that might affect interpersonal interactions. They do not serve any temperature-managing functions in people, as they do in other animals. They occur in dense concentrations on hands, cheeks, scalp, breast areolas, and wherever we possess body hair--and are only functional after puberty, when we begin searching for mates.
Men's apocrine glands are larger than women's, and they secrete most actively during times of nervousness or excitement. Waiting colonies of bacteria turn apocrine secretions into the noxious fumes that keep deodorant makers in business. Hair provides surface area from which apocrine smells can diffuse--part of the reason why hairier men smell particularly pungent. (Is it any coincidence that hair at the arm pit and the genitals sprouts at puberty, when apocrine glands start producing food for our skin bacteria?)
Most promising of all, apocrine glands exude odorous steroids known to sexual behavior in other mammals. Androsterone--a steroid related to the one that nearly doomed the hapless musk deer--is one such substance. Men secrete more androsterone than women do, and most men become unable to detect the stuff right around the time they start producing it themselves--at puberty.
Humans possess three major types of skin glands--sebaceous glands, eccrine (or sweat) glands, and apocrine glands. Sebaceous glands are most common on the face and forehead but occur around all of the body's openings, including eyelids, ears, nostrils, lips, and nipples. This placement is particularly handy, as the secretions of these glands kill potentially dangerous microorganisms. They also contain fats that keep skin supple and waterproof and, on the downside, cause acne. Little is known, however, about how sebaceous glands contribute to human body odor.
The sweat glands exude water and salt and are non-odorous in healthy people. That leaves the third potential source of a human pheromone--the apocrine gland. Apocrine glands hold special promise as the source of smells that might affect interpersonal interactions. They do not serve any temperature-managing functions in people, as they do in other animals. They occur in dense concentrations on hands, cheeks, scalp, breast areolas, and wherever we possess body hair--and are only functional after puberty, when we begin searching for mates.
Men's apocrine glands are larger than women's, and they secrete most actively during times of nervousness or excitement. Waiting colonies of bacteria turn apocrine secretions into the noxious fumes that keep deodorant makers in business. Hair provides surface area from which apocrine smells can diffuse--part of the reason why hairier men smell particularly pungent. (Is it any coincidence that hair at the arm pit and the genitals sprouts at puberty, when apocrine glands start producing food for our skin bacteria?)
Most promising of all, apocrine glands exude odorous steroids known to sexual behavior in other mammals. Androsterone--a steroid related to the one that nearly doomed the hapless musk deer--is one such substance. Men secrete more androsterone than women do, and most men become unable to detect the stuff right around the time they start producing it themselves--at puberty.
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