Salicylaldehyde (2-hydroxybenzaldehyde) has a sharp, bitter-almond opening with a distinct green-floral facet reminiscent of hyacinth, meadowsweet and mimosa. A phenolic, slightly medicinal undertone emerges, giving it a cool, wet-leaf character that dries down herbal and mildly hay-like.AI · claude-opus-4-7
Perfume and Flavor Chemicals, page 1241.
Colorless mobile liquid. Solidifies in the cold.
Slightly soluble in water, miscible with alcohol and oils.
Pungent, irritating odor reminiscent of Benzaldehyde, Acetophenone and Nitrobenzene, but with distinct halogeno-phenolic notes.
The taste in concentrations below 10 ppm is nut-like, vaguely coumarin-like/caramellic, warm, slightly spicy.
Since it is generally agreed that Salicylic aldehyde represents a hazard to human skin, the use of this material in perfumes has been practically abandoned. The aldehyde is occasionally used in technical perfumery, in masking odors for technical purposes, etc.
The title material is used in imitation butter, caramel, nut, cinnamon, fruit and spice blends, Muscatel flavor, Violet imitation flavor, etc. in amounts equivalent to 0.5 to 6 ppm in the finished product. Concentrations up to 20 ppm can be found in chewing gum.
The original synthesis used sodium phenolate and chloroform, heated with potassium hydroxide. More modern methods use esters of ortho-cresol, e.g. ortho-cresyl carbonate or tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate (TCP) and proceed via chlorination and saponification to Salicylic aldehyde.