Material guide: Vertofix (methyl cedryl ketone) — the only single molecule in the database that is woody, musk, amber and leather at once

In the last article, the GC analyst who reverse-engineers fragrances at a Givaudan-owned company named three materials:

"Things like ISO E Super, IBCH and Vertofix Coeur already were used to try and hide things within a formulation."

I looked up Vertofix's odour field, and that sentence explained itself:

woody; vetiver; amber; leathery; musk; cedar

Six descriptors across four odour families.

I counted across all 42,225 records: only 3 carry woody, musk, amber and leather together. The other two are named "musk fragrance" and "musk specialty" — no CAS number, because those are compounded bases, not molecules.

Vertofix is the only single molecule in the database that is all four of those things at once.

The short version

• Three names, one CAS. The database calls it methyl cedryl ketone, IFF's trade name is Vertofix, and RIFM's safety assessment calls it acetyl cedrene.
• The corpus records it under four names, merging to 81 formulas (8.5%) at a median dose of 5.00%.
• Vapour pressure 0.000084 mmHg. Of the 8,934 materials carrying a vapour pressure figure, only 549 are lower — it sits inside the bottom 6.1%.
• Longevity 400 hours at 100%, a neat value sitting at the top of the scale.
• One GHS statement only (H302, harmful if swallowed), with the oral toxicity field reading "not determined".
• RIFM's safety assessment was updated in 2026 — this material's assessment is live.
• A 2012 sediment study: without organisms only 13–31% degraded in 14 days, with worms present it fell to between 1% and 12% remaining, and none was detectable in worm tissue.

The basics

Database name	methyl cedryl ketone
Trade names	Vertofix, Vertofix Coeur (IFF)
RIFM name	acetyl cedrene
CAS	32388-55-9
Formula	C₁₇H₂₆O
Molecular weight	246.39
Odour	Woody, vetiver, amber, leathery, musk, cedar
Odour family	woody
Strength	Medium
Longevity	400 hours at 100% (neat, at the ceiling)
Appearance	Yellow to brown clear oily liquid
Boiling point	272 °C @ 760 mmHg
Flash point	100 °C
Vapour pressure	0.000084 mmHg @ 25 °C (est)
logP	4.00 (est)
Natural occurrence	Not found in nature
Storage	24 months or longer
Regulatory listings	(blank)
Suppliers	71
Corpus position	81 formulas (8.5%), median dose 5.00%, range 0.80–35.00%

Why it can "hide things"

Take the odour field apart first.

Descriptor	Usually belongs to
Woody, cedar	Woody
Vetiver	Woody/earthy
Amber	Amber
Leathery	Leather
Musk	Musk

One material that reads as four families at once.

That cuts two ways for a formula. On the creative side it is an efficient bridge — if you want a woody base carrying hints of leather and musk, this one material does it, and you do not need three.

On the last article's side, this is exactly why it misleads: a nose registering "there is leather in here" may go looking for a leather material, when that signal came from a woody one.

But state it precisely: this is not encryption. It does not make gas chromatography read wrong — GC returns a peak for CAS 32388-55-9. What gets misled is the attribution step done by nose, which is the part the analyst described as "the perfumers will do the rest".

The analyst's own conclusion was equally clear: "it's not really stopped anyone trying to recreate fragrances so far."

Three names

This is the fourth time this series has run into the same problem.

Source	Name
This site's database	methyl cedryl ketone
IFF trade name	Vertofix, Vertofix Coeur
RIFM safety assessment	acetyl cedrene

One CAS number, 32388-55-9.

The corpus records it separately too: vertofix in 50 formulas, methyl cedryl ketone in 26, vertofix coeur in 3, methyl cedryl ketone replacer in 2. Merged, 81 formulas (8.5%).

Same as omega-pentadecalactone's four names and helional's five — searching one name misses most of it. Match on CAS.

This one has an extra trap: the name RIFM uses (acetyl cedrene), the name suppliers use (Vertofix) and the name the database uses (methyl cedryl ketone) are all different. So when you go looking for safety data, it is easy to conclude none exists.

How low that vapour pressure is

0.000084 mmHg.

In context: of the 8,934 database materials carrying a vapour pressure figure, only 549 are lower. It sits inside the bottom 6.1%.

Against the ones this series has covered:

Material	Vapour pressure	Longevity
1,8-cineole	1.9 mmHg	4 hours
Benzaldehyde	1.270 mmHg	4 hours
Cyclamen aldehyde	0.009 mmHg	72 hours
Helional	0.003 mmHg	64 hours
Vertofix	0.000084 mmHg	400 hours

Four orders of magnitude of vapour pressure, and longevity from 4 to 400 hours. That r = −0.625 regression is visible across these five.

Its 400 hours sits at the scale ceiling where 13.3% of materials pile up, so the real figure is only known to be "at least 400". Given that vapour pressure, there is probably a lot of room above the "at least".

It is not in cedar

The name carries cedryl and cedrene, and the database's natural occurrence field reads not found in nature.

It is made from a component of cedarwood oil rather than isolated from it. The precursor is cedrene, which genuinely is in cedarwood oil, but the acetylated product is a human product.

That is a variant of the pattern from heliotropin, cyclamen aldehyde and helional — those borrow a flower's name; this one borrows a feedstock's.

The safety assessment is live

RIFM, the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, published an updated safety assessment for this material in 2026 (Api and colleagues, Food and Chemical Toxicology), the original assessment having appeared in 2024. Further back, a fragrance material review was published in 2013.

That is worth noticing on its own: at least three formal assessment documents on one material within thirteen years.

Meanwhile my database gives it one GHS statement — H302, harmful if swallowed — and its oral toxicity field reads "not determined".

Those two facts look contradictory and are not. The database's GHS and toxicity fields record what public sources carry, while RIFM's assessment works from the full dossier submitted to it, including studies that never appear in public databases. We have counted that field's coverage: 369 of 42,225 records.

So "only one GHS statement" does not mean "only one hazard"; it means "public sources carry only one". To formulate with it, check current IFRA Standards and RIFM's assessment rather than that database column alone.

What happens to it in sediment

This material has one very specific environmental study, and its conclusion is not the one you might expect.

Dai and colleagues, in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in 2012, studied the fate of acetyl cedrene in sediment. Their motivation is stated directly: fragrance materials such as acetyl cedrene are of environmental concern because they are continuously released to aquatic systems down the drain.

The method: expose Capitella teleta, a deposit-feeding polychaete worm, to acetyl-cedrene-amended sediment at two population densities (44,000 and 88,000 worms per m²), compare against identical systems without worms, and track the compound's fate by mass balance.

The results:

• Worm survival was close to 100% in all treatments.
• Acetyl cedrene had some positive effects on worm growth, but not feeding; population density itself had negative effects on both.
• After 14 days, sediment concentration was reduced by 88 to 99% in the presence of worms, against 13 to 31% or less without them.
• Acetyl cedrene was detected in fecal pellets at low concentrations relative to the initial sediment concentration, and was not detected in worm tissue.

The authors read this as ingested acetyl cedrene being bioavailable to Capitella teleta, and the worms being able to biotransform sediment-associated acetyl cedrene effectively.

Two things stand out. First, without organisms it persists — 13 to 31% loss in 14 days, consistent with a vapour pressure of 0.000084 mmHg. Second, with organisms it goes quickly, and it does not stay in tissue.

This is one 2012 study, one species, a laboratory sediment system. It does not generalise to "this material is environmentally harmless", nor to "all sediments behave this way". It says something specific: in that system, what cleared it was biology rather than physics.

Smelling it and using it

• Start at 5%. That is the corpus median; the range of 0.80% to 35.00% has formulas built on it as a woody spine at the top end.
• The strength field says medium with no dilution advice attached. It is relatively forgiving, unlike cineole with its "10% or below".
• Note that it is yellow to brown. Dark materials affect finished colour, so test before using it in anything meant to be clear.
• Smell it beside cedarwood oil. Both carry cedar, but this one adds the leather and musk layers that the oil does not have.
• It stays to the end. Four hundred hours, 0.000084 mmHg. The woodiness you smell on day two is probably this.

Buying and storage

Seventy-one suppliers. Buy on CAS 32388-55-9, since at least three names circulate across different documents.

Shelf life 24 months or longer, flash point 100 °C, no special storage concerns. It is not an aldehyde, so it does not need the nitrogen treatment benzaldehyde does.

Regulatory and safety

The database carries one GHS statement, H302, harmful if swallowed, with oral toxicity "not determined". That reflects thin public data rather than few hazards.

Check current IFRA Standards for the limit, and note that RIFM has a full safety assessment for this material (2024 original, 2026 update) — here is how to check.

→ Methyl cedryl ketone in the database: full physical data, 71 suppliers and suggested blends. → Search by odour: try "woody amber leather".

References

A. M. Api et al., Update to RIFM fragrance ingredient safety assessment, acetyl cedrene, CAS Registry Number 32388-55-9, Food and Chemical Toxicology, 213(Suppl 1), 116145 (2026). PMID 42106098. doi:10.1016/j.fct.2026.116145

L. Dai, H. Selck, D. Salvito, V. E. Forbes, Fate and effects of acetyl cedrene in sediments inhabited by different densities of the deposit feeder, Capitella teleta, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 31(11), 2639–2646 (2012). PMID 22912158. doi:10.1002/etc.1991