Beta-Damascone (Woody, minty, floral tobacco?)
27th July 2006
I will admit to more than a casual fascination with smell. I am forever wafting vials of compounds for a whiff - which I get more and more flak for, as people get more and more cautious. I figure a few femtograms of small molecules here and there are the last thing that will do me in.
Perfumers (and biologists) still are looking for structure-odor rules, which prove to be continuously elusive. As I’ve mentioned before, one problem here is language; describing odor is hard!
I won’t even try at this one (anyway, I’ve never smelled it neat): beta-damascone:
Depending whom you ask, beta-damascone can be described by any of the following descriptors:
- fruity
- floral
- blackcurrant
- plum
- rose
- honey
- tobacco
- berry
- alcoholic
- green
- woody
- minty
You might begin to get an idea of what such an amalgam would be like, but probably not until you smelled it. Remember, all these “notes” come from ONE molecule: not a plant extract of many molecules.
Beta-damascone also looks like another terpene. This isn’t too surprising, since they are ubiquitous natural products.
See you tomorrow.