Earthy-Musty Odor-Producing Cyanophytes Isolated from Five Water Areas in Tokyo

Abstract

Two kinds of 2-methylisoborneol-producing blue-green algae, Oscillatoriageminata and O.limnetica, and three kinds of geosmin-producing algae, O.amoena, O.splendida, and Aphanizomenonflos-aquae, were isolated from a park pond, a fish-cultivation pond, a river, and a reservoir. An oscillatorian species isolated from an air conditioning cooling tower was shown to yield both 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin simultaneously. Care was taken to ensure that the blue-green algae identified were those responsible for the musty odor compounds.