Furanones

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Organic compounds built around a five-membered unsaturated lactone ring, many of which produce distinctive flavors or aromas in foods
2. A family of heterocyclic chemicals containing a ring of four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom with a ketone group, found in nature and industry
3. Cyclic compounds characterized by a furan ring bearing a carbonyl group, studied in chemistry for their roles in flavor and biological signaling

Etymology: Furanones are a family of compounds built on a furan ring, a five-membered ring holding four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. The name is a straightforward piece of chemical naming: "furan" comes from the Latin "furfur," meaning bran, because furan's parent compound, furfural, was first obtained from bran. The suffix "-one" marks a ketone, a carbonyl group (a carbon double-bonded to oxygen) attached within the ring. Put together, the name describes a furan ring carrying a ketone group. The plural form "furanones" simply refers to several such compounds at once. Because the ring can carry the ketone group in different positions and with different attached groups, chemists work with many members of the family, and some of them contribute strongly to the aromas of foods such as strawberries and pineapples.