F&F Bookshelf: Terpenes

Terpenes

By Eberhard Breitmaier

Wiley-VCH (www.wiley.com)

214 pages

Terpenes are key facets of both flavors and fragrances and are thus the focus of a large body of literature. Eberhard Breitmaier’s Terpenes—translated into English from the second German edition—serves to take a broad, if not comprehensive, look at these natural compounds.

Breitmaier’s introduction on the topic includes a discussion of terpenes’ importance, explains the isoprene rule and the materials’ biogenesis. The subsequent terpene review is arranged by numbers of isoprene units and parent skeletons, and in addition examines occurrences in plants and olfactory profiles.

Finally, Terpenes covers syntheses and production processes for mono-/sesquiterpenoid fragrances. Also addressed are terpene structure and isolation and molecular shape-odor relationships.

More in Regulatory & Research