Philip Kraft (born in Rendsburg on March 24, 1969) is a German organic chemist. Since 1996 he has been employed by Givaudan, a leading Flavor and Fragrance company, where he designs captive odorants for use in perfumes. He has lectured at the University of Bern, the University of Zurich, and the ETH Zurich.
Kraft's interest in fragrance chemistry and perfumery was awakened in 1986 by an article on rose oxide analogs, [1] which led to contacts with Haarmann & Reimer (now Symrise), where he was introduced to the world of scents and fragrances. After graduation from high school and military service which involved forensic and analytical chemistry, he studied chemistry from 1989–1994 at the University of Kiel. He obtained his degree while working in Werner Tochtermann's group, then continued his research with this group, producing his PhD thesis on the synthesis of macrocyclic musks in 1996. Moving to industry, he joined Givaudan's Fragrance Research center of in Dübendorf (Switzerland) in 1996 as the head of an organic synthesis laboratory. In 2001 he participated in an expedition with Roman Kaiser to the primary rain forest of the Masoala peninsula (Madagascar) in search of new natural leads. That same year, he was promoted to group leader for the discovery of new odorants. His primary research interests are the rational design of new odorants, molecular modeling, and structure–odor correlations, particularly in the domain of musks and floral odorants. [2] Since 2008 he has taught courses in fragrance chemistry at the University of Bern, the University of Zurich, and the ETH Zurich.
Kraft, as of 2014, has authored 78 papers in peer-reviewed chemistry journals, and is inventor or co-inventor of 30 patents. Highly cited reviews include “Fragrance Chemistry“, [3] “Odds and Trends: Recent Developments in the Chemistry of Odorants”, [4] “New and Unusual Natural Products of Fascinating Flower Scents“, [5] and a book chapter on “Musks”. [6] He co-organized the Flavor & Fragrance conference series of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of the Chemical Industry in Manchester 2004 and London 2007, and the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker at Leipzig in 2013.
Kraft was the research instigator and lead author of From Rallet No1 to Chanel No5 versus Mademoiselle Chanel No1 [7] which explored the work of perfumer Ernest Beaux leading to the creation of Chanel's No.5.
Leopold Ružička was a Croatian-Swiss scientist and joint winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes" "including the first chemical synthesis of male sex hormones." He worked most of his life in Switzerland, and received eight doctorates honoris causa in science, medicine, and law; seven prizes and medals; and twenty-four honorary memberships in chemical, biochemical, and other scientific societies.
An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance or flavoring, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficiently volatile for transmission via the air to the olfactory system in the upper part of the nose. As examples, various fragrant fruits have diverse aroma compounds, particularly strawberries which are commercially cultivated to have appealing aromas, and contain several hundred aroma compounds.
Acetoin, also known as 3-hydroxybutanone or acetyl methyl carbinol, is an organic compound with the formula CH3CH(OH)C(O)CH3. It is a colorless liquid with a pleasant, buttery odor. It is chiral. The form produced by bacteria is (R)-acetoin.
Hexamethylphosphoramide, often abbreviated HMPA, is a phosphoramide (an amide of phosphoric acid) with the formula [(CH3)2N]3PO. This colorless liquid is a useful reagent in organic synthesis.
1,4-Dimethoxybenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H4(OCH3)2. It is one of three isomers of dimethoxybenzene. It is a white solid with an intensely sweet floral odor. It is produced by several plant species.
Calone or methylbenzodioxepinone, trade-named Calone 1951, also known in the industry as "watermelon ketone", was discovered by Pfizer in 1966. It is used to give the olfactory impression of a fresh seashore through the marine and ozone nuances. Calone is similar in structure to brown algae pheromones like ectocarpene and is also distantly related in structure to the benzodiazepine class of sedatives.
Albert Jakob Eschenmoser (5 August 1925 – 14 July 2023) was a Swiss organic chemist, best known for his work on the synthesis of complex heterocyclic natural compounds, most notably vitamin B12. In addition to his significant contributions to the field of organic synthesis, Eschenmoser pioneered work in the Origins of Life (OoL) field with work on the synthetic pathways of artificial nucleic acids. Before retiring in 2009, Eschenmoser held tenured teaching positions at the ETH Zurich and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California as well as visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, Cambridge University, and Harvard.
2C-YN is an analog of phenethylamine that can be synthesized from 2C-I. Very little data exists about the pharmacological properties, metabolism, and toxicity of 2C-YN, although Daniel Trachsel lists it as having a dosage of around 50mg and a duration of around 2 hours, with relatively mild psychedelic effects.
2-Methylundecanal is an organic compound that is found naturally in kumquat peel oil. This compound smells herbaceous, orange, and ambergris-like. At high dilution it has a flavor similar to honey and nuts. It is a colorless or pale yellow liquid that is soluble in organic solvents such as ether and ethanol. It is used as a fragrance component in soaps, detergents, and perfumes.
Synthetic musks are a class of synthetic aroma compounds to emulate the scent of deer musk and other animal musks. Synthetic musks have a clean, smooth and sweet scent lacking the fecal notes of animal musks. They are used as flavorings and fixatives in cosmetics, detergents, perfumes and foods, supplying the base note of many perfume formulas. Most musk fragrance used in perfumery today is synthetic.
4-Substituted-2,5-dimethoxyamphetamines (DOx) is a chemical class of substituted amphetamine derivatives featuring methoxy groups at the 2- and 5- positions of the phenyl ring, and a substituent such as alkyl or halogen at the 4- position of the phenyl ring. Most compounds of this class are potent and long-lasting psychedelic drugs, and act as highly selective 5-HT2A, 5-HT2B, and 5-HT2C receptor partial agonists. A few bulkier derivatives such as DOAM have similarly high binding affinity for 5-HT2 receptors but instead act as antagonists, and so do not produce psychedelic effects though they retain amphetamine-like stimulant effects.
Roman Kaiser is a Swiss fragrance chemist. Since 1968 he has been working at Givaudan, the world's largest company in the flavour and fragrance industry, where he analyzes and reconstitutes natural scents for use in perfumery using the headspace technology which he pioneered and which as a new concept made significant impact on the analysis of natural products.
A captive odorant, or short captive, is an odorant or aroma chemical retained by the originating manufacturer for exclusive use in their own perfumes to protect them from imitation.
The total synthesis of the complex biomolecule vitamin B12 was accomplished in two different approaches by the collaborating research groups of Robert Burns Woodward at Harvard and Albert Eschenmoser at ETH in 1972. The accomplishment required the effort of no less than 91 postdoctoral researchers (Harvard: 77, ETH: 14), and 12 Ph.D. students (at ETH) from 19 different nations over a period of almost 12 years. The synthesis project induced and involved a major change of paradigm in the field of natural product synthesis.
Isobornyl cyclohexanol is an organic compound used primarily as a fragrance because of its aroma which is similar to sandalwood oil. Its chemical structure is closely related to that of both α-Santalol and β-Santalol, which are the primary constituents of sandalwood oil.
Günther Ohloff was a prominent German fragrance chemist.
Galaxolide is a synthetic musk with a clean sweet musky floral woody odor used in fragrances. It is one of the musk components that perfume and cologne manufacturers use to add a musk odor to their products. Galaxolide was first synthesized in 1965, and used in the late 1960s in some fabric softeners and detergents. High concentrations were also incorporated in fine fragrances.
Pomarose is a high-impact captive odorant patented by Givaudan. It is a double-unsaturated ketone that does not occur in nature. Pomarose has a powerful fruity rose odor with nuances of apples, plums and raisins, which is almost entirely due to the (2E,5Z)-stereoisomer, while its (2E,5E)-isomer is barely detectable for most people. Catalyzed by traces of acids, both isomers equilibrate however quickly upon standing in glass containers.
Carbonyl olefin metathesis is a type of metathesis reaction that entails, formally, the redistribution of fragments of an alkene and a carbonyl by the scission and regeneration of carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds respectively. It is a powerful method in organic synthesis using simple carbonyls and olefins and converting them into less accessible products with higher structural complexity.
1,2,4,5-Cyclohexanetetrol (also named cyclohexane-1,2,4,5-tetrol, 1,2,4,5-tetrahydroxycyclohexane, or para-cyclohexanetetrol) is an organic compound whose molecule can be described as a cyclohexane with four hydroxyl (OH) groups substituted for hydrogen atoms on two non-adjacent pairs of adjacent carbon atoms. Its formula can be written C
6H
12O
4, C
6H
8(OH)
4, or [–(CH(OH)–)2–CH
2–]2.
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