Found in Jasminum grandiflorum (also produced synthetically)
Appearance
colorless to pale yellow oily liquid
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
N/A - primarily manufactured synthetically
Pyramid
Heart
Green, herbaceous-floral with a distinct jasmine leafiness. Cis-jasmone smells like crushed jasmine stems rather than flowers — grassy, slightly bitter, with a tea-like dryness.
Green, herbaceous, with a grassy-leafy freshness. More stem than flower — bitter, slightly tea-like, with a celery-like crispness. Less sweet than jasmine absolute, greener than hedione, more herbal than linalool. On blotter, it evolves toward a quiet, dry-herbaceous character. Not a 'pretty' note — functional, structural, anchoring.
CAS 488-10-8. A natural ketone (3-methyl-2-(2-pentenyl)-2-cyclopenten-1-one) found in jasmine absolute, where it contributes the green, herbaceous quality of the jasmine scent complex. Despite the name, cis-jasmone smells more like jasmine leaves than jasmine flowers.
The scent is distinctly green and herbaceous, with a dry, tea-like quality. It lacks the dense, indolic sweetness of jasmine's floral character (which comes from benzyl acetate, indole, and jasmone). Instead, cis-jasmone provides the structural green backbone — the stem-and-leaf quality that gives natural jasmine its three-dimensional character.
In perfumery, cis-jasmone is used as a green modifier in jasmine reconstructions and as a standalone green note. It adds a naturalistic leafy freshness that purely floral molecules cannot provide. The molecule also has documented activity as an insect semiochemical — plants release cis-jasmone as a defense signal, and it has been studied for use in agricultural pest management.
Cis-jasmone is one of the few perfumery molecules with a documented double life as a plant defense compound. When plants are damaged by herbivorous insects, they release cis-jasmone to attract parasitic wasps that prey on the herbivores — a chemical 'call for help' that has been studied since the 1990s for biological pest control.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Can be isolated from jasmine absolute by fractional distillation, but commercial quantities are produced synthetically. The molecule is also available from natural sources (jasmine, neroli) at much higher cost. Synthetic production is by standard organic chemistry routes.
Molecular Formula
C11H16O
CAS Number
488-10-8
Botanical Name
Found in Jasminum grandiflorum (also produced synthetically)
Green modifier in jasmine accords and herbaceous-floral compositions. Cis-jasmone provides the structural green element that makes jasmine reconstructions smell three-dimensional rather than flat. At low dosage (0.1-1%), it adds naturalistic leafy freshness; higher concentrations become aggressively green. Also used in green tea accords, herbaceous compositions, and as a modifier in chypre structures where green-floral character is needed.
