Β-Pinene

β-Pinene is a monoterpene, an organic compound found in plants. It is one of the two isomers of pinene, the other being α-pinene. It is a colorless liquid soluble in alcohol, but not water. It has a woody-green pine-like smell.

β-Pinene is one of the most abundant compounds released by forest trees. If oxidized in air, the allylic products of the pinocarveol and myrtenol family prevail.

Uses
β-Pinene is used in fragrances and essential oils. It is also used in the production of other aroma compounds, such as myrcene and nerol (got by careful fractional distillation of crude nerol got from myrcene ). The myrcene is got by pyrolysis of α-Pinene or β-Pinene. Reacting with formaldehyde, result is nopol. When nopol is acetylated, the result is nopyl acetate, which is used as fragrance material.