A cool, penetrating mint character with a clean camphoraceous edge. Less sweet and more medicinal than l-menthol, with a slightly weaker cooling sensation on the skin but the same crisp peppermint-like freshness.AI · claude-opus-4-7
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Perfume and Flavor Chemicals, page 783.
Colorless crystalline mass.
Almost insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol, propylene glycol and oils. Slightly soluble in mineral oil and glycerin.
Odor very similar to that of Menthol, but somewhat more woody, not quite as sweet, and the cooling sensation is not perceptible at the same low concentration as it is in laevo-Menthol.
The taste follows the above odor pattern in that it is less sweet than laevo-Menthol, but not bitter as Menthone. It is less cooling on the mucous membranes (and the skin) than laevo-Menthol.
It is used extensively in perfumes as a cheaper material where laevo-Menthol could be used, but the saving is actually negligible since the price difference is rather small and the useful concentration of Menthol in a perfume is low.
In flavors, or in cosmetic preparations, where Menthol is sometimes used in quantities that amount to tens of tons annually for the manufacturer, the savings in using racemic-Menthol as partial replacement for laevo-Menthol is more obvious.
Produced by reduction of di-Menthone with sodium in ethylether, or by Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction.