Celery Pheromones - Aphrodisiac Effects of Celery

Is it fact or fiction that celery contains aphrodisiac properties? Well, its actually false. Celery is thought to be an aphrodisiac by some people because it is thought to contain androsterone, a metabolic product of testosterone. However, it's just a misunderstanding of androstenone, which has a different structure to androsterone and is otherwise unrelated.

Androsterone is a human only pheromone. It’s use as a pheromone is born out of the fact that males with a higher ratio of androsterone to etiocholanone are more masculine. Thus, androsterone makes the wearer appear to be more masculine and/or dominant.

In humans, androstenone also has been suggested to be a pheromone; however, scientific data to support these claims are scant. The vomeronasal organ is an auxiliary olfactory sense organ that is responsible for the detection of pheromones as more than just an odor. Most adult humans possess something resembling this organ, but there is no active function. Humans lack the sensory cells that exist in other mammals needed to detect pheromones beyond a smell. Humans also lack the genetic ability to produce these sensory cells actively.