O.Henry says the pharmacist smelled bad.
"Behind his counter he was a superior being, calmly conscious of special knowledge and worth; outside he was a weak-kneed, purblind, motorman-cursed rambler, with ill-fitting clothes stained with chemicals and smelling of socotrine aloes and valerianate of ammonia."

I could not find out what socotrine was. I have made pills
of aloes, and do not recall objectionable odour. The last item has a peculiar spelling, which is not in the online dictionaries. I suppose it is some compound of valeric acid, which is one of the things that gives garbage its
characteristic disagreeable odour. I cannot imagine what use a pharmacist would use it for.

I looked on the web, and socotrine aloes is a kind of aloe. It's also called Zanzibar. From the Socotra archipelago. It's part of Yemen and is in the Indian Ocean.

Thanks jheem. Peculiar though, the quote makes it sound
as though the socotrine was something else, as the quote's next item was aloes.