Preliminary Descriptive Study on the Conservation of Human Sweat Odor: Impact of Storage Temperature and Duration on the Stability of Volatile Organic Compounds in Sorbent Samples.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted in human matrices have gained attention for their potential in noninvasive disease detection, utilizing canine olfaction and chemical analysis. However, the stability of these VOCs under various storage conditions remains poorly understood, presenting a challenge to accurate diagnostics. This study investigates the effects of storage temperature and time on VOC conservation using three types of sorbents, Sorbstars, Twisters and Getxent, without the aim of directly comparing sorbent performance. Initially, synthetic sweat-like mixtures were analyzed on Sorbstars and Getxent, revealing unexpected increases in signal intensity after 1 month and 2 months, which led to a shift toward human sweat samples for a more realistic assessment. Long-term storage of human sweat samples collected on Sorbstars resulted in a marked decrease in total VOC signal intensity, with losses exceeding 80% after 18 months. Short-term studies (2-3 months, Sorbstar and Twisters) revealed temperature-dependent changes in VOC signal intensity that varied by VOC and sorbent. Overall, these results highlight the importance of storage temperature and duration in VOC conservation. As a preliminary study, these findings emphasize that VOC stability should be characterized for the specific VOCs of interest and that further investigations are required to establish robust and compound-specific conservation protocols across different storage conditions.