A pungent, fatty acid odor with a distinctly sweaty, animalic character reminiscent of body odor and warm skin. Slightly sour and tallowy, with a rancid-waxy undertone that becomes more tolerable at high dilution, lending a natural, humanlike facet to musk and animalic accords.AI · claude-opus-4-7
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Perfume and Flavor Chemicals, page 1363.
Colorless leafy crystals or fused mass.
Practically insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol and oils.
The odor varies enormously in different grades of the acid, from oily, mildly acid and heavy-fruity, overall pleasant, to acrid-acrid, repulsively sour-fatty. However, for perfumery or flavor purposes, the latter type would be absolutely out of question. A very highly refined grade of this acid has a faintly peach-like odor, accompanied by a waxy-fatty, mildly sour-sweet note which gives an overall pleasant impression.
The acid is rarely used as such in perfumes or flavors, except perhaps in certain artificial flower absolutes, etc. and for very special odor effects.
Mostly by thermal decomposition (pyrolysis under vacuum) of Castor oil (or Methyl ricinoleate). It has also been synthesized by the Malonic ester method.