CIVETONE

Chemical Properties

Cycloheptadeca-9-en-1-one has an obnoxious animal-gland odor. It can be pleasant at extreme dilutions.

Chemical Properties

CIVETONE is a colorless liquid with warm, sensual, animalic musky odor and extreme tenacity. It is themain odoriferous constituent of civet.Civetonewas formerly prepared bymultistep syntheses, for example. Recently, newer processes using dimethyl (Z)-9-octadecendioate as starting material have been described. This is cyclized by a Dieckmann condensation either in liquid or in gaseous phase. (Z)-9-Octadecendioic acid is available by microbial oxidation of oleic acid with Candida tropicalis.
It is used in fine fragrance compositions for, for example, toiletries and body care products.

Occurrence

In civet (cis-form).

Uses

In perfumery.

Definition

ChEBI: A macrocycle that is cycloheptadecanone with an unsaturation at position 9 (the 9Z-stereoisomer). It has been found in African Civets.

Preparation

From aleuritic acid, the trans- form only; the cis- and trans-forms from ethyl-9-keto heptadecanedioate.

Aroma threshold values

Detection: 3 ppb

Safety Profile

A skin irritant. When heated to decomposition it emits acrid smoke and irritating fumes.