Synthetic musk

Synthetic musks are a class of synthetic aroma compounds to emulate the scent of deer musk and other animal musks (castoreum and civet). Synthetic musks have a clean, smooth and sweet scent lacking the fecal notes of animal musks. They are used as flavorings and fixatives in cosmetics, detergents, perfumes and foods, supplying the base note of many perfume formulas. Most musk fragrance used in perfumery today is synthetic. Synthetic musks in a narrower sense are chemicals modeled after the main odorants in animal musk: muscone in deer musk, and civetone in civet. Muscone and civetone are macrocyclic ketones. Other structurally different but functionally similar compounds also came to be known as musks. An artificial musk was obtained by Albert Baur in 1888 by condensing toluene with isobutyl bromide in the presence of aluminium chloride, and nitrating the product. It was discovered accidentally as a result of Baur's attempts at producing a more effective form of trinitrotoluene (TNT). It appears that the odour depends upon the symmetry of the three nitro groups. Musk xylene Musk ketone 6-Acetyl-1,1,2,3,3,5-hexamethylindane Phantolide (Haarmann & Reimer) 4-Acetyl-1,1-dimethyl-6-tert-butylindane Celestolide (IFF) Crysolide (Givaudan Roure) 5-Acetyl-1,1,2,6-tetramethyl-3-isopropylindane Traseolide (Quest) 1,2,3,5,6,7-Hexahydro-1,1,2,3,3-pentamethyl-4H-inden-4-one Cashmeran, not a true musk but with musk odor (IFF) The creation of this class of musks was largely prompted through the need for eliminating the nitro functional group from nitro-musks due to their photochemical reactivity and their instability in alkaline media. This was shown to be possible through the discovery of ambroxide, a non-nitro aromatic musk, which promoted research in the development of nitro-free musks. This led to the eventual discovery of phantolide, so named due to its commercialization by Givaudan without initial knowledge of its chemical structure (elucidated 4 years later).