Coumarine

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sweet-smelling white crystalline organic compound naturally present in tonka beans, woodruff and other plants, used in perfumes and flavourings
2. A fragrant chemical substance occurring naturally in certain plants, prized for its vanilla-like scent and used to flavour foods and fragrances
3. An aromatic crystalline lactone found in various plant species, historically used as a scent ingredient and once as a food additive

Etymology: Coumarin is named after the tonka bean, a dark seed from South American trees of the genus Dipteryx, whose local name was "coumarou" in the Galibi language of the Caribbean. The seeds smell strongly of vanilla and hay, and the compound that gives them that scent was isolated from them, so chemists gave it a name built from the bean's name plus the chemical suffix "-in." The spelling "coumarine," with the extra "e," follows the French form of the word, which is one of the two routes the name may have taken into English.

Synonyms: coumarin