Cashmeran

Soft, musky and woody, with spicy warmth, a resinous, conifer-like undertone, a hint of fruit and a velvety, clean radiance.

Cashmeran is the note name for DPMI, a molecule that does not exist in nature. It was created in the late 1960s at a US fragrance manufacturer, when a chemist was looking for inexpensive modifications of known indane building blocks already used to make musk odorants. The name alludes to the soft, enveloping feel of cashmere wool – the substance has nothing to do with wool or any plant. Likewise, the 'cashmere wood' named in fragrance descriptions is not a type of wood but a fantasy note often associated with Cashmeran.

Cashmeran is built entirely in the laboratory. The starting material is a tetrahydro-pentamethylindane, i.e. a pentamethylindane whose aromatic six-membered ring has been partly saturated with hydrogen. On this ring, a CH₂ group is then selectively oxidised to a keto group – industrially, for example, with atmospheric oxygen and a cobalt catalyst, while the original patent also used other oxidising agents. The result is a bicyclic, unsaturated ketone made of a five- and a six-membered ring carrying five methyl groups. At room temperature the substance is a white solid that melts at around 27 °C.

Cashmeran sits between families: it combines a dry, conifer-like woody character with a soft musk note and is therefore regarded as a bridge between woody and musky accords. In compositions it lends woody notes volume, diffusion and a velvety, powdery texture. Because it is extremely long-lasting, it works mainly in the base. Typical levels range from traces to about 2 % of the perfume concentrate. In our range it appears in 55 fragrances, in 38 of them in the base.

Woody · Musk · Spicy · base note

As a synthetic aroma chemical, Cashmeran is independent of harvests, climate and season and is produced all year round in consistent quality. In a fragrance, its velvety, warm wood-musk note comes into its own especially in autumn and winter, yet its clean radiance makes it wearable all year.

In our fragrances, it often appears alongside Vanilla, bergamot, patchouli, musk, sandalwood, amber, orange blossom.

On 18 August 1969, a chemist at a US fragrance manufacturer filed a patent for a group of new indanone compounds; it was granted on 20 November 1973. One of them was launched in the 1970s as Cashmeran. Since the patent expired, several manufacturers have produced the molecule.

• Cashmeran owes its name to the feel of cashmere wool – the 'cashmere wood' in fragrance pyramids is not a real type of wood but a fantasy note.
• Cashmeran melts at only around 27 °C – below skin temperature; in a warm room it is half solid, half liquid.
• Although Cashmeran is often counted among the polycyclic musks, it lacks their typical aromatic benzene ring.

Cashmeran is 1,1,2,3,3-pentamethyl-1,2,3,5,6,7-hexahydro-4H-inden-4-one (DPMI, C₁₄H₂₂O, PubChem CID 92292, CAS 33704-61-9, molar mass about 206.3 g/mol). Its skeleton consists of a five- and a six-membered ring; a double bond between the rings is conjugated with the keto group. The carbon atom bearing the middle methyl group is a stereocentre, so two mirror-image forms exist – commercially, Cashmeran is a racemate, a 1:1 mixture of both. The substance is highly fat-soluble (log Kow about 4.5 to 4.9). Under EU classification (CLP) it is toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects (H411), is a weak skin sensitiser (H317) and is restricted in quantity by IFRA depending on the product category.