MOLECULAR SIMILARITY STUDIES ON SANDALWOOD ODOR MOLECULES - INVESTIGATIONS OF THE CONFORMATIONAL SPACE

Odour differences of some campholene and fencholene derivatives are ex plained by the analysis of the conformational space and the molecular shape of these molecules. The high flexibility caused by free rotation of some carbon-carbon bonds leads in one case to a large number of en ergetically possible conformations which have to be taken into account for a study of molecular similarity. In another case, steric restrict ions reduce the number of relevant conformations such that no active c onformation exists in a thermodynamic equilibrium.