Nepedia
Back to Discover
Independent Reader
⚛️

Cadaverine

physical science Maturity 11-13 Next article →

Some things have a very bad smell. One of these is cadaverine. It is a clear liquid. It is a diamine, which means it has two nitrogen parts.

This liquid is found in living things. It is also in animal tissue. It helps make a foul smell when flesh rots. It works with another chemical called putrescine. Together, they make that bad odor.

A doctor named Ludwig Brieger found it in 1885. He worked in Berlin. He named it after the word cadaverous.

Scientists can make this liquid in labs. They can do this using many ways. One way uses a chemical called glutaronitrile.

We can find cadaverine in human bodies. It is in seminal plasma. It is also in the urine of some people. This happens if their bodies have trouble with lysine. Lysine is a part of how the body works.

In zebrafish, a tiny part of the body reacts to it. This part is a receptor. A receptor is a part that senses things. In humans, it fits into special pockets in the body too.

Fish use receptors to sense the world.

185 words

Where will your curiosity go next?

Keep exploring at your chosen reading level.

More to explore

🔬 Go deeper

More advanced topics to explore

🪜 Step back

Simpler topics to build understanding

What is Nepedia?

A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.