Why Does Durian Fruit Smell So Awful?

Take some old rank cheese, mix it with some chopped onions, throw in some rotten fish, your old unwashed gym socks, and anything you can find from the bottom of a dumpster in the height of summer; add a bit of turpentine, mix it all up and let it stew for a couple of days. Now take a big whiff of your masterpiece. You will then know what durian fruit smells like. It’s the “most abominable stench” and “almost unbearable” according to typical descriptions. The most common comparisons are Limburger cheese, rotten fish, and rotted onions. Yum! Why does this tropical fruit with a delicious taste smell so outrageously awful? How can someone eat a fruit, no matter how good tasting, if it’s as if they are doing so inside a sewer pipe?

There are a lot of stinky foods out there. There are stinky cheeses like Limburger and the even stinkier Vieux Boulogne. There is Surströmming, the tinned fish from Sweden that smells like the deadest most rotten of rotten fish. There are the slimy fermented soybeans called Natto that smell like stinky feet or dirty gym socks. There are the Chinese century eggs that smell like they are five centuries old. The list goes on and on. But you’d have to mix all these together to approximate the smell of Durian fruit.

What Does Durian Taste Like?

But if you are brave, or fool hearty enough to taste the Durian fruit, what does it taste like? Well, it tastes like a delicious creamy pudding. People have described it as a perfect banana pudding with a touch of vanilla, butterscotch, peach, pineapple, strawberry, and almond. For a nice finish, there is also a bit of garlic or onion in there.

Singaporeans say Durian has “the smell from hell and the taste from heaven.” It tastes so good that once people eat some, they tend to discount the smell and wonder why everybody was so freaked out. Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary and competitor to Charles Darwin, declared after acquiring quite a tast for the fruit, “the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop,” adding that the taste of durian was well worth traveling to the Far East.

I cannot answer the question as to how people can possibly eat durian no matter how good it tastes. I am particularly offended by strong food odors that give me bad breath and by the smell of such things on other people’s breath. These types of odor compounds do not only cause bad breath, they tend to make someone smell in general as the odors “leave the body.” I would never eat such a thing so I can only describe what other people have experienced!

How Is Durian Eaten?

Durian is usually eaten fresh. It can also be made into many different products, including candy, pastries, ice cream, sherberts, custards, and jam. Durian is used to flavor soft drinks, as well.

The fruit of the durian is sometimes preserved as a powder or paste. It is also found as a frozen puree. Like the mango in Thailand, Durian is used to accompany sticky rice in some parts of Asia. In China, they like to have durian along with pastries. Durian seeds can also be eaten. They can be roasted and eaten like nuts or consumed in other ways. They are sometimes crushed to make sweet confections.

Durian is difficult to find outside Southeast Asia, however, and when exported, it is one of the world’s most expensive fruits. You are most likely to find it in big cities with ethnic neighborhoods and markets.

In Indonesia, fermented durian is called Tempoya. It’s used as a side dish or as a sauce for shellfish. Unlike fresh durian fruit, which has a short shelf-life of 3 to 5 days, fermented dorian can last up to a year. Durian is also made into a “fruit leather.”

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Banned Durian in Singapore

Regardless of how beloved the fruit may be, people have their limits. As you can imagine, eating durian gives you the most awful bad breath. It’s said bad breath from eating durian lingers for at least 6 hours and is way worse than garlic breath. In Singapore, they do not serve durian in Hotels because the smell would waft everywhere and offend isitors (I suspect it would offend everyone..you may like garlic but do you want to smell it constantly?) The fruit is also banned in taxis, buses, ferries, and Airline flights. In the Subway, you’ll find “No Durian” signs that show a Durian set inside the typical red circle with a red slash through the center. Durian has its lovers, but they are a small minority. 1

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Why Does Durian Stink So Badly?

The main culprits responsible for the stink of the durian fruit are usually said to be sulfur-containing compounds. Research has confirmed that durian contains a cocktail of offensive-smelling chemicals. A study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2012) by scientists from the German Research Center for Food Chemistry revealed that it’s not just one compound but many compounds that are responsible for Durian’s stench. No single one of these chemicals may smell like Durian, but all of them together create a synergistic effect that produces the most funkified funk imaginable.

Using “An aroma extract dilution analysis applied on the volatile fraction isolated from Thai durian by solvent extraction and solvent-assisted flavor evaporation” the researchers identified 44 odor-active compounds. 24 of these had not been reported in durian before. The paper uses chemical names that will mean nothing to most of us, but they also helpfully paired the chemicals with a smell they most resemble, and not all of them are stinky. 2,3

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Odor Causing Compounds In Durian Fruit

The first five chemicals were identified as highly volatile compounds that are potently odor-active.

hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg)
acetaldehyde (fresh, fruity)
methanethiol (rotten, cabbage)
ethanethiol (rotten, onion)
propane-1-thiol (rotten, durian)
ethyl (2S)-2-methylbutanoate (fruity)
ethyl cinnamate (honey)
1-(ethylsulfanyl)ethanethiol (roasted onion)
1-(ethyldisulfanyl)-1-(ethylsulfanyl)ethane (sulfury, onion)
2(5)-ethyl-4-hydroxy-5(2)-methylfuran-3(2H)-one (caramel)
2-ethyl-5-methyl-pyrazine (nutty)
3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethylfuran-2(5H)-one (soup seasoning)
ethyl 2-methylpropanoate (fruity)
ethyl butanoate (fruity)
3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol (skunky)
ethane-1,1-dithiol (sulfury, durian)
1-(methylsulfanyl)ethanethiol (roasted onion)
1-(ethylsulfanyl)propane-1-thiol (roasted onion)
4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethylfuran-3(2H)-one (caramel)

Other compounds were said to produce metallic, rubbery, burnt or cheese smells. The study also noted that:

Fourteen of the 41 characterized durian odorants showed an alkane-1,1-dithiol, 1-(alkylsulfanyl)alkane-1-thiol, or 1,1-bis(alkylsulfanyl)alkane structure derived from acetaldehyde, propanal, hydrogen sulfide, and alkane-1-thiols. Among these, 1-(propylsulfanyl)ethanethiol, 1-{[1-(methylsulfanyl)ethyl]sulfanyl}ethanethiol, and 1-{[1-(ethylsulfanyl)ethyl]sulfanyl}ethanethiol were reported for the first time in a natural product.

These are associated with garlic like sulfur odors, skunk odors, etc. 2

Other Interesting Facts About Durian

Despite the terrible smell, toothpaste flavored with durian has been marketed for those particularly obsessed with the fruit.
According to a 2009 study from Japan, durian extract strongly inhibits the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which is used by the liver to break down alcohol. This may account for the legend that eating durian at the same time as drinking alcohol could be deadly.
In Asia, durian is sometimes used as a fever treatment
Conversely, in Malaysia, it is believed that durian produces a type of “heat” that can lead to sour throat, headache, or fever. Pouring water into the husk while adding salt, then drinking it, can help to avoid this outcome
Durian is also considered an aphrodisiac in some cultures, although this seems impossible.
In Malaysia, durian fields have to be guarded from robbers.
Durian fruits are very heavy and covered with sharp spines. Since the often fall off the tree when ripe, you have to be careful around durian trees as fruits have fallen on people’s heads and seriously injured them. People who work with durian are told to wear helmets.
Not only bees help to pollinate durian. Bats, spikers, and ants do too.
Orangutans in Sumutra and Borneo love to eat durian fruit. They waste most of it, taking just a couple of bites and dropping the rest. This does help to propagate the seeds so new trees can grow. 1

Small, Ernest. Top 100 Exotic Food Plants. Ukraine, CRC Press, 2011.
Characterization of the Major Odor-Active Compounds in Thai Durian (Durio zibethinus L. ‘Monthong’) by Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis and Headspace Gas Chromatography–Olfactometry. Jia-Xiao Li, Peter Schieberle, and Martin Steinhaus. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2012 60 (45), 11253-11262. DOI: 10.1021/jf303881k
Stromgberg, Joseph. “Why Does the Durian Fruit Smell so Terrible?” Smithsonian.Com, Smithsonian Institution, 30 Nov. 2012, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-does-the-durian-fruit-smell-so-terrible-149205532/.