Irone

As is well known, Irone is the principal odoriferous constituent of Orris Butter, the essential oil obtained from Orris Root by steam distillation.

1951 [D. Van Nostrand], Frank C. Whitmore, Organic Chemistry, Volume One: Part I: Aliphatic Compounds, Part II: Alicyclic Compounds, 2nd Edition, 2012, Dover republication, page 565, The previously accepted cycloheptene structure for the irones has been shown recently to be wrong.

The constituents of Orris (Iris) oil that we shall be concerning ourselves with in this chapter are the irones (22-24). Orris oil comes from the steam distillation of the rhizomes of Iris pallida (which contains the major irone components; (-)-trans-α-irone, (+)-cis-γ-irone, (+)-cis-α-irone, (+)-β-irone, and (+)-trans-γ-irone) or Iris germanica. Both species of iris contain the same irones except that the irones in Iris germanica are the optical antipodes of those found in Iris pallida [27].