Synthesis and odor of chiral partial structures of β‐vetivone. I.

Several, stereoisomeric, monocyclic analogs of (−)‐β‐vetivone (1), one of the main constituents of vetiver oil, were studied to determine whether the olfactory properties of (−)‐β‐vetivone (1) could be reproduced from these structurally simpler, synthetically accessible compounds. The effects of diastereomeric and enantiomeric structural differences on the odor of the partial vetivone structure were determined. A chiral phenyl sulfoximine was used for separation of the racemic mixtures. Detailed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic studies (¹H, ¹³C) were used to determine relative configurations while absolute configurations were determined by circular dichroism (CD) methods. Chirality 11:14–20, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.