Musk odorants are ubiquitous in fine perfumery as well as household products, and are divided into four main families, the nitromusks, the macrocyclic musks, the polycyclic aromatic musks, and the alicyclic musks, following their order of appearance on the perfumery market. This article presents the scientific and industrial adventures during the discovery of the seven commercial polycyclic musks, which invigorated the aroma chemistry corporations during the second half of the 20th century, resulting in relentless competition. Research and development strategies are exposed, and reactivity, analytical, mechanistic, and structure-activity relationships aspects are discussed as well as some biographical elements of the main scientific actors, and some fine perfumery examples are given as illustrations of their use.
Keywords: fragrances; history of science; industrial chemistry; rearrangement; structure-activity relationships.
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