Asarone

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A naturally occurring aromatic compound, chemically related to phenylpropenes, found in the essential oil of sweet flag and calamus plants
2. An organic chemical with a sweet, spicy odor that is extracted from the oil of the calamus plant and used in flavoring and research
3. A fragrant substance present in the volatile oil of certain marsh plants such as sweet flag, prized historically for its scent and properties

Etymology: Asarone takes its name from the plant genus "Asarum", the wild ginger, whose Latin name was itself borrowed from Greek "asaron". The "-one" ending is the standard chemists' suffix for a ketone, a compound containing a carbonyl group, so the word was built as a technical label rather than inherited from ancient usage. The name was coined to mark a compound isolated from the oil of the plant, and its formation follows the common pattern of naming a chemical after the organism it came from.