What must be taken into consideration when designing a novel fragrance ingredient?
The most obvious requirement for a fragrance ingredient is odor. Normally, a pleasant odor character is desired but there are quite a few widely used ingredients (e.g., indole) that few would describe as pleasant, and there are thousands of different pleasant odors that all find use. The same is true with tenacity, intensity and threshold; perfumers use ingredients across the scale for each. So, in terms of odor, there are no right or wrong answers, merely different blends of character, intensity, etc. In contrast, in the field of safety, wrong answers are definitely possible. Any new substance that could harm production staff during manufacture, the consumer (when in use) or the environment (after use), will not survive the screening process. Substances that do not perform well in perfume formulae or in consumer goods will also be likely to fail in screening. Price is an important consideration because any new ingredient will be in competition with those already on the market and, unl
