Definition
Tonkin musk refers to the scented secretion of the abdominal gland of the male musk deer, mainly Moschus moschiferus. The gland, or "pod", yields once dried dark brown granules used as an alcoholic tincture. The name "Tonkin" points to the historical trade region in northern Vietnam.
Origin and history
The animal lives in the highland forests of thirteen Eurasian countries, including Siberian Russia, Mongolia, China, Tibet, Nepal and Vietnam (source: Animal Diversity Web). Its principal odorant, muscone, was isolated from Tonkin musk by German chemist Heinrich Walbaum in 1906, with the empirical formula C16H30O.
In 1926, Leopold Ružička elucidated its 15-membered macrocyclic structure (source: American Chemical Society), a body of work on large-ring compounds that contributed to his 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and opened the way to synthetic muscones.
Use in perfumery
Before its trade was restricted, Tonkin musk tincture, at 3 to 5 percent in ethanol, served as a powerful fixative and lent an animalic roundness to classical compositions. All populations of the genus Moschus have been listed in the CITES appendices since 1979; the Himalayan populations sit in Appendix I, which prohibits international commercial trade (source: CITES).
Commercial perfumery has since shifted to synthetic muscones. Tonkin musk remains cited as an olfactive reference in historical formulas, but no longer appears in contemporary niche briefs.