CHANEL No 5? No, the cricket XI. Perfume makers have captured the essential smells of manly outdoor activities so that men who spend their days at a desk can still acquire a sporty scent.

The researchers have extracted scents from cricket grounds, including the changing rooms, cricket bats and kit, as well as from the cabins of ocean-going yachts.

“We are looking for modern smells that have never been used in fragrances before but which have strong associations with activities that people enjoy or respect,” said Will Andrews, a fragrance scientist at Procter & Gamble (P&G), which makes perfumes by Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabbana and Lacoste.

His aim is not to recreate the sweaty smell of a cricket pavilion or yacht cabin but to find “notes” within the odours found in such places that evoke positive emotions associated with sporty activities. These can then be used in conjunction with other odours to make new fragrances.

“Smell is the most evocative of the senses,” said Andrews. “Just a faint whiff of a particular odour can conjure up memories and emotions in a way that no other sense can achieve.”

Next month Andrews will give a lecture at the Royal Institution in London describing how his researchers have used a technique called “headspace analysis”, in which a pump sucks air from a room or area deemed to have interesting smells.

The air is passed over polymer beads that trap the odour molecules and concentrate them. Back in the laboratory the beads are placed in a gas chromatograph where they are warmed up. The odour molecules evaporate from the beads and are sucked into the machine to be analysed.

Once the structure of the molecules is known they can be duplicated artificially in the quantities needed for perfume.

The power of smell to evoke memories and associations can, however, work against perfumers because odours can become associated with the past in ways that make them seem old-fashioned.

Lavender, once a favourite female fragrance, is now often associated with old age. “Younger people have smelt it on their grannies so they may associate it with ageing,” said Andrews.

Brut, a popular male cologne four decades ago, has also lost sales because it is associated by many with the 1970s, a decade whose fashions are generally now mocked.

P&G is just one of many companies deploying science to capture fresh smells that act on the human brain in new and subtle ways.

Harvey Prince, an American manufacturer, recently claimed that its Ageless Fantasy scent had captured the smell of youth, so that women wearing it would be perceived as around eight years younger than they were. Independent tests suggested, however, that the benefits were unclear.

Another manufacturer, Demeter, has successfully marketed a range of fragrances specifically designed to evoke childhood memories, with smells including bubble gum, baby powder and even crayon.

Avery Gilbert, a scientist who specialises in studying the sense of smell, and the author of What the Nose Knows: the Science of Scent in Everyday Life, said the power of odours lay in their ability to provoke emotion.

“Animals use smell for simple reasons such as to detect food or danger but humans have developed a wide range of emotional responses,” he said. “For perfumers the trick is to manipulate those responses by using scents to create feelings.”

P&G’s research has shown that there are many smells that have acquired a modern appeal. Even the “electronic” smell of a warm computer is attractive to some people – and P&G is trying to bottle that too.

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