Natural members of the m-menthane family are scarce, but science is overcoming this scarcity by the ingenious tailoring of other monoterpenes to furnish a wide range of compounds belonging to this group. The p-menthane derivatives have been exhaustively exploited: their counterparts in the m-menthane series can be regarded as potential building blocks for terpene technology. There have been significant contributions to this rapidly expanding area.
m-Menthadienes
Jettisoning of four atoms of hydrogen from m-menthane theoretically generates not less than 25 m-menthadienes. Systematic naming of these compounds is based on m-menthane, which is numbered as in (1). Confusing generic names have been use in some cases so we have followed the recent recommendations of Bardyshev and Zen'ko.
