beta-Damascenone

What beta-Damascenone smells like

Beta-damascenone is a fruity-floral rose ketone in a warm, baked, honeyed register — closer to stewed apple and dried rose petals than to a fresh flower. Database descriptions add sweet, brown, woody, tobacco and davana-like fruity notes with a spicy balsamic undernote. Its odour threshold is among the lowest known, which is why it contributes so much to the smell of rose oil despite being a trace. It occurs in tobacco, tea, grapes, wine, bourbon and baked apples, formed by the breakdown of carotenoids.

Leading note

Baked apple and rose

Clear facets

Honey

Supporting facets

Tobacco, plum, dried fruit

Faint facets

Spicy balsamic

Character

Warm, baked, honeyed, intense

• fruity
• cooked apple
• plum
• rose
• tobacco

What makes beta-Damascenone distinctive

Baked rather than fresh: the cooked-apple, honeyed rose that gives rose oil its glow and lingers in wine, whisky and tea.

Concentration and dilution

Extraordinarily potent; used only in traces.

How beta-Damascenone is used

Used in traces in rose, fruity, tobacco and gourmand compositions and in flavours; restricted with the other rose ketones.

Typical role: modifier (used in small amounts to change the character of a blend).

How beta-Damascenone differs from similar materials

beta-Damascone

Beta-damascone is darker plum and blackcurrant; damascenone is a warmer, baked-apple, honeyed rose.

Rose Oil (Rosa damascena)*

Damascenone is a trace in rose oil but, because of its tiny threshold, one of its most important odorants; the oil adds citronellol, geraniol and phenylethyl alcohol. (compared directly by a cited source)

Pomarose

Pomarose is a synthetic fruity rose with apple, plum and raisin, damascone-like; damascenone is warmer, more honeyed and baked.

An asterisk marks a difference that a cited source states directly. The others compare the published descriptions of each material. Smell varies with grade, supplier and dilution; compare them side by side on blotters before substituting one for another.

Formulation considerations

Extremely potent; work from 0.1% or weaker dilutions. Covered by the IFRA Standard on rose ketones.

Identity and classification

Type

Aroma chemical

Origin

Occurs in nature

Odour family

Fruity / Floral

Note position

Heart note

Physical form at room temperature

Liquid

CAS number

23696-85-7

Molecular formula

C13H18O

Molecular weight

190.28 g/mol

IUPAC name

(E)-1-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohexa-1,3-dien-1-yl)but-2-en-1-one

The CAS number, formula and molecular weight are taken from PubChem compound 5366074, whose own record lists this CAS number; checked 19 October 2026.

Safety and compliance

The IFRA Standards Library lists a Standard covering beta-Damascenone:

• "Rose ketones" — Restriction, 49th Amendment, published 2020-01

Limits differ by product category and are set out in the Standard itself; this page does not reproduce them. The list above reflects the library as read on 19 October 2026.

Hazard classification of the neat substance, as PubChem summarises it, read 26 October 2026. Companies notifying the ECHA C&L Inventory classify it (1,954 reports): H317 may cause an allergic skin reaction (99.9% of reports); H411 toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects (99.8% of reports); H315 causes skin irritation (69.9% of reports). A skin sensitiser classification concerns handling the neat material and the dose in a finished product; the IFRA Standards, where they apply, set the limits. Unless it is harmonised, this is the notifiers' own classification, not a binding one.

This page is general information, not a safety assessment or a specification. Confirm identity, composition, IFRA status and allergen content from your supplier's documents for the lot you hold.

Materials it works with

• beta-Damascone

  Aroma chemical · Fruity / Floral — fruity, rose, plum, blackcurrant

• Rose Oil (Rosa damascena)

  Essential oil · Floral / Fruity — rose, honeyed, spicy, fresh

• Davana Oil

  Essential oil · Fruity / Aromatic — fruity, boozy, dried fruit, herbal

beta-Damascenone is also suggested as a partner on the pages for delta-Damascone, Ethyl Safranate, Phenylacetic Acid and Tabanon.

Used in formulas and accords

Used in 11 published formulas

beta-Damascenone is an ingredient in 8 perfume formulas and 3 accords in the Formula & Accord Library.

Community formulas

• Honeyed Rose Accord

  Community Formula · Accord · listed as “Damascenone Total”

• Hyacinth Accord

  Community Formula · Accord · listed as “Damascenone Total”

RUŌOD House Originals

Original compositions by RUŌOD House.

• Cured Leaf

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Dark Rum Cabinet

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Glass Rose Accord

  RUŌOD House Accord · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Guaiac Rose

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Myrrh Lantern

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Pipe Smoke Orchard

  RUŌOD House Creation · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Plum Velvet Hour

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Rose Graphite

  RUŌOD House Creation · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Rose Moss Archive

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “beta-Damascenone 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

Further reading

• Damascones in Perfumery: Rose Ketones in Practice

  Alpha-, beta- and delta-damascone and damascenone: odor, trace dosing from dilutions, where they belong, EU Annex III limits, Rose Ketones labeling, IFRA.

• Odor Thresholds in Perfumery: Why Strength Is Not Proportion

  What an odor threshold is, why a 0.01% material can dominate a formula, odor values, how perceived intensity rises, and specific anosmia in evaluation.

• Fruity Notes in Perfumery: Esters, Lactones and Ketones

  How fruit is built in perfumery from esters, lactones, ketones and sulfur materials, why 'C-14' is a lactone, dosage, stability and restrictions.

Questions about beta-Damascenone

Sources

• PubChem — compound 5366074, checked 19 October 2026.
• PubChem — GHS classification (the ECHA C&L Inventory notifications and any harmonised EU entry), read 26 October 2026.
• IFRA — Standards Library, read 19 October 2026.
• University of Bristol — Molecule of the Month: beta-damascenone — published literature.
• Premiere Peau — Beta damascenone — published perfumery reference.
• ChemicalBook — damascenone (CAS 23696-85-7) — odour database.
• Olfactory profile: the RUŌOD Lab team's synthesis of the published descriptions above, reviewed 20 October 2026. Evidence: several independent published descriptions, which agree. Classification and the short description: revision 1. Descriptions of odour are judgement, not measurement.