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Fragrances - a world of beautiful flavors

If you look around and pay attention, it is quite obvious that today it is impossible to imagine the world without fragrances and flavorings. Synthetic and natural aromatic substances surround us everywhere - from the bathroom and kitchen to shops and offices. Fragrances are used to scent soaps, bath and body care products, cosmetics, household chemicals, air fresheners, and many other products. Food flavorings also have a fairly wide range of applications, not only for flavoring food products. For example, in pharmacology, flavorings are used to give medicinal products an acceptable taste and aroma. Food flavorings are also used in the production of animal feeds, allowing animals to eat better and gain weight.

So, we cannot do without fragrances and flavorings. Aromatic fragrances can be divided into two types - natural and synthetic. However, there is some confusion in understanding synthetic fragrances, which are classified as simply synthetic fragrances and natural identical ones. It should be known that in reality, these fragrances are also synthetic, but their chemical structure and aromatic molecule structure are identical to the natural aroma of natural origin. For example, take the food flavoring vanillin, which is a synthetic substance, but chemically identical to natural vanilla extract. A variety of synthetic aromatic substances are used in fragrances, which also mimic the scents of natural aromas - citrus, flowers, fruits. By mixing these artificial fragrances, other types of identical natural aromas are obtained, as well as completely new scents that cannot be found in nature. Raw materials for synthesizing fragrances can be completely unrelated products at first glance - for example, cellulose processing products, as well as entirely natural essential oils.

Many aromatic synthetic substances can be used both in the food industry for flavoring and in non-food applications. In recent years, the chemical industry has reached such a level of development that specialists have been able to synthesize almost all aromatic substances that were previously extracted only from natural raw materials. This applies in particular to menthol, amber, musk, citron, and other substances. However, there are also aromas that simply do not exist in nature, so-called fantasy fragrances (hydroxycitronellal - a mixed aroma with the main note of linden leaves, the scent of jasmine in the fragrant substance jasminaldehyde, etc.). This has not only expanded the range of fragrances but also preserved valuable natural resources, plants, and animals. After all, extracting aromatic natural substances requires a considerable amount of natural raw materials, and sometimes it was necessary to sacrifice the lives of animals. For example, to obtain one kilogram of natural musk, it was necessary to kill about thirty thousand musk deer males.

Aromatic substances are used as components for creating perfume compositions. They are mixed in certain proportions with aromatic substances. Cosmetic and aromatic fragrances are also based on aromatic substances. In turn, fragrances are used to scent cosmetics, household chemicals, and other products. In household chemicals, fragrances are called odorants.

Perfume fragrances and perfumery itself consist of a certain number of aromatic substances. Some perfumes are quite simple in their structure, while others contain a multitude of aromatic substances, both natural and synthetic.