The Discovery of Pheromones and Their Use as Attractants

If you were looking into pheromones one hundred years ago, you could enter any library and find exactly nothing. Pheromone research was non-existent in the Civil War era, and just gathering steam in the World War I period.

The usual notion of discovery is that of finding an entity and then learning what that entity does. With pheromones, it was the opposite. It started with more than one observation about the behavior of moths. Mysterious phenomena regarding their mating habits were documented after careful observation. Naturalists, those who study nature by watching rather than intervening, began noticing that male moths had an uncanny way of finding the females who were ready to mate.

Any naturalist who observed this magical navigation was understandably puzzled. It was obvious that the moths could not see the receptive females in the woodlands where they lived. It wasn't that the females were always in the same place, in some kind of moth singles bar, either. Male moths found newly matured females, wherever they were, just after they emerged from their cocoons.

Many explanations were put forth, and it was ultimately concluded that the females were somehow signaling their locations to the males. This meant that some kind of chemical agent traveling on a breeze was being received by some organ on the males. This wasn't a lot to go on, but it was nonetheless profound.

From early research with insects, scientists began to consider the role of aerially-transmitted compounds in larger creatures, such as dogs. As with moths, male dogs have a remarkable ability to find a female dog in heat.

The folk explanation is that dogs can smell something emitted by the female, even though we humans cannot. While it's true that dogs can discriminate much more finely among odors than humans can, that wasn't quite the full story. Rather than smelling fertility indicators, dogs were found to possess a volmeronasal organ that has receptors for pheromone signals.

Interestingly, the term "pheromone" wasn't coined until 1959. Its Greek-based name means "to bear impetus," or, in plain terms, to make other members of your own species do something!

Since the 1960s, human pheromone research has proceeded in fits and starts. Despite some public skepticism, devoted pheromone researchers are learning more every day about how pheromones help us regulate our lives and attract and keep both our mates and friends.

For more information on how the use of pheromones can change your life please call 1-877-PHERO-77 (743-7677).

To read about The Most Effective Pheromones for Sex and Sexual Functioning in Men and Women .... click HERE.