Phenylpropenes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Aromatic organic chemicals built from a benzene ring bearing a three-carbon chain with a double bond, found in many plant essential oils
2. Classes of hydrocarbon compounds in which a benzene ring is joined to an unsaturated propenyl group, occurring naturally in various aromatic plants
3. Naturally occurring aromatic molecules made of a phenyl ring attached to a propene unit, widely studied in flavour and fragrance chemistry

Etymology: "Phenylpropenes" is the plural of "phenylpropene," a compound name built from its two parts. "Phenyl" is the chemical group made of a six-carbon benzene ring with one hydrogen removed, and the name comes from "phene," an old term for benzene, joined to the suffix "-yl," which chemists use to label groups of atoms that attach to other molecules. "Propene" is the three-carbon hydrocarbon, with the "-ene" ending marking a carbon-carbon double bond, so the name describes a chain of three carbons with a double bond and a phenyl group attached. The plural covers the whole family of such molecules, many of which give plants their distinctive smells. Eugenol in cloves and estragole in tarragon are examples, and the word names the shared structural pattern behind them rather than any single compound.