A hydrocarbon found in essential oils, particularly in fennel and fir needle oil, with a fresh camphoraceous smell.
Derived from 'fenchol' (a terpene alcohol found in fennel), with the -ene suffix (indicating a hydrocarbon with a double bond). Named after fennel, the plant from which it was first isolated in the 19th century.
Fenchene is part of why fennel tastes licorice-like—it's one of dozens of invisible smell molecules that your nose detects, and chemists use these 'terpene fingerprints' to identify fake essential oils.
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