Previously, I covered ethyl thiolactate, which is one of those oddly sweet smelling thiols (like grapefruit mercaptan). Ethyl lactate also smells nice.
Ethyl lactate is the ester of ethanol and lactic acid - Wikipedia claims it's biocompatible, because, after all, you have ethanol and lactate in you. The same is true of ethanol and acetic acid, though, and ethyl acetate is supposed to be moderately toxic. Maybe it's a hydrophobicity thing. Also, lactic acid is chiral, and you've only got one of the two running around.
Anyone have any ideas on those two?
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465,481 comments so far. 50 runners-up will receive the fabulous ScienceBlogs mug. The excitement is palpable. Can Uncle Al have 500 grams of high purity benzil instead? Add an equivalent of benzhydrol, dissolve the mix in ethanol, add some KOH - pretty!
Yay! Prizes! Reason enough to comment. So, is ethyl lactate used in perfumery or food?