| Description |
Occurs in sweet clover. Banned by FDA for use in food_x000D_
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Coumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean (Dipteryx odorata), vanilla grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum), mullein (Verbascum subspecies), sweet grass (Hierochloe odorata), cassia cinnamon (Cinnamomum aromaticum) and sweet clover (Fabaceae subspecies). It has a sweet odor, readily recognised as the scent of newly-mown hay, and has been used in perfumes since 1882. Sweet woodruff, sweet grass and sweet clover in particular are named for their sweet smell, which is due to their high content of this substance. When it occurs in high concentrations in forage plants, coumarin is a somewhat bitter-tasting appetite suppressant, and is presumed to be produced by plants as a defense chemical to discourage predation. Although coumarin itself has no anticoagulant properties, it is transformed into the natural anticoagulant dicoumarol by a number of species of fungi. Coumarin is used in the pharmaceutical industry as a precursor molecule in the synthesis of a number of synthetic anticoagulant pharmaceuticals similar to dicoumarol, the notable ones being warfarin (tradenamed "Coumadin," not to be confused with coumarin) and some even more potent rodenticides that work by the same anticoagulant mechanism. [Wikipedia]. |
