Muscone is a macrocyclic ketone, an organic compound that is the primary contributor to the odor of musk.

Since obtaining natural musk requires killing the endangered animal, nearly all muscone used in perfumery and for scenting consumer products today is synthetic.

One asymmetric synthesis of (−)-muscone begins with commercially available (+)-citronellal, and forms the 15-membered ring via ring-closing metathesis:[1] A more recent enantioselective synthesis involves an intramolecular aldol addition/dehydration reaction of a macrocyclic diketone.

[3] It was found that the human musk-recognizing receptor, OR5AN1, identified using a heterologous olfactory receptor expression system and robustly responding to muscone, fails to distinguish between muscone and the so-prepared isotopolog in vitro.

[3] OR5AN1 is reported to bind to muscone and related musks such as civetone through hydrogen-bond formation from tyrosine-260 along with hydrophobic interactions with surrounding aromatic residues in the receptor.