Most cooking spices and flavors are a complex mixture of compounds, all working together to make an intricate odor. The odor is recognized by olfactory receptors in your nose by the mix of chemical structures; if something is missing from the mixture, or the shape of a molecule is changed even slightly, the resulting smell will change. However, many flavors have one principal compound from which the flavor or spice can be recognized - for example, isoamyl acetate is recognized as ‘fake' banana flavor (think of banana flavored Laffy Taffy or Runts candies). Many of these odoriferous compounds, which can be purchased as "essential oils," are not much more than a chemical or two synthesized in a lab.
The smell of cloves is due to an organic oil commonly named eugenol, or 4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol (structure below).
Part 1. Explain what would happen (and why) to the flavor of eugenol if the aromatic ring was saturated into a cyclohexane.
Part 2. Does eugenol exhibit geometric (cis-trans) isomerism? Why or why not?
Part 3. When trying to identify the smell of eugenol, many people recognize it as a different common spice: nutmeg. What can you infer about the structure of the principal component of nutmeg? What functional groups most likely exist in the molecule?