# Lily of the Valley??



## icesk8 (Jan 3, 2008)

I work at a candle store and yesterday this woman came in looking for a Lily of the Valley candle and she said it had something to do with a woman's scent and fertility or something, (I couldn't really understand her), but she said it was in the bible and being the bad former Catholic that I am I had no idea what she was talking about. But what does Lily of the Valley have to do with fertility??


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## weegift333 (Dec 6, 2004)

I was really curious about this when I saw your post, so I looked it up. Here is what I found:

"What drives human sperm wild? The smell of lily of the valley. It appears sperm have 'noses' which they use to navigate toward a woman's egg. Researchers experimented with a range of floral fragrances and lily of the valley came out on top, getting the random sperm wriggling in the same direction at twice the normal speed.

The research was carried out at Ruhr University in Germany in 2003. They discovered a new sperm protein, hOR17-4, which acted as a receptor for sperm in exactly the same way as protein sensors in the nose detect smells. They then tested their new sperm 'nose' on hundreds of synthetic compounds, many of them used to mimic floral scents in commerical perfumes.

One of these, bourgeonal, is used to create the lily of the valley fragrance. It had two dramatic effects on the behavior of sperm: doubling its speed and changing undirected swimming behavior to direct movement. The 'foot-to-the-floor' effect seems to derive from hOR17-4 making the sperm wag their 'tails' harder."

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Crazy stuff!

weegift333
SAHM to ABC, 03/03/03; IRC, 03/18/06; and CCC & MCC, 03/17/08


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## lotus.blossom (Mar 1, 2005)

Hmmmmm, my mum gave me lily of the valley perfume on my wedding day. That must have been a hint to make babies!!


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## UberMama (Feb 27, 2007)

Interesting!

More on this: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2.../03/823011.htm

http://perfumemaking.blogspot.com/20...f-lily-of.html

http://www.pharmacytimes.com/issues/...003-05_468.asp


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