Musk is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and synthetic versions of undisclosed composition created in 1994. The use of natural musk pods occurs in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), but TCMs in China, save for specially exempt drugs, use a synthetic version of undisclosed composition created in 1994. Synthetic musks are a class of synthetic aroma compounds that emulate the scent of deer musk and other animal musks.
Here are some positive and negative aspects of musk:
Positive:
- Musk is a key constituent in many perfumes since its discovery, being held to give a perfume long-lasting power as a fixative.
- Synthetic musks are pleasant in smell and relatively inexpensive, as such they are often employed in large quantities to cover the unpleasant scent of laundry detergents and many personal cleaning products.
Negative:
- The demand for deer musk has led to a severe decrease in musk deer populations. Six of the seven musk producing species are listed as Endangered.
- Nitro-musks such as musk xylene could cause cancer in some specific animal tests.
Musk xylene is a synthetic musk fragrance which mimics natural musk. It has been used as a perfume fixative in a wide variety of consumer products. Musk xylene is produced from meta-xylene (1,3-dimethylbenzene), by a Friedel–Crafts alkylation with tert-butyl chloride and aluminium chloride followed by nitration with fuming nitric acid or with a 70:30 mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid.
