Civetone
chemical compound
Civetone is a macrocyclic ketone and the main odorous constituent of civet oil. It is a pheromone sourced from the African civet. It has a strong musky odor that becomes pleasant at extreme dilutions. Civetone is closely related to muscone, the principal odoriferous compound found in musk; the structure of both compounds was elucidated by Leopold Ružička. Today, civetone can be synthesized from precursor chemicals found in palm oil.
Uses
Civetone is a synthetic musk used as a perfume fixative and flavor. Its aroma is described as "clean, musk, dry, animal, sweet".
In order to attract jaguars to camera traps, field biologists have used the Calvin Klein-brand male cologne Obsession. It is believed that the civetone in the cologne resembles a territorial marking.
“Civetone” enters the record as chemical compound. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Civetone, chemical and compound can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Civetone” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Civetone, chemical and compound provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q198354. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Civetone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.