A liquid hydrocarbon extracted from turpentine or produced synthetically, used as a solvent and in organic synthesis.
From 'camphor' plus the chemical suffix '-ene' (denoting an unsaturated hydrocarbon with a double bond). The term emerged in the 19th century when chemists identified this compound in turpentine distillation.
Camphene was one of the first natural products chemists could interconvert with camphor, making it a key molecule in understanding how terpenes work—it helped prove that many plant fragrances are made from the same basic 10-carbon building blocks arranged differently. That discovery changed how scientists thought about plants.
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