Syntheses of the fragrance hydroxyambran using hydrogenation methods

The preparation of 2-cyclododecylpropan-1-ol (trade names: Hydroxyambran (R) and Amberwood (R)) from an easily available starting material was performed using two complementary synthesis routes. A high target product yield was achieved for one of the routes investigated by means of a heterogeneously and a consecutive homogeneously catalysed hydrogenation step. The reported approach is more effective than formerly applied reaction sequences. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.