composition of perineal gland secretion (musk) from the african civet civeticttis civetta (schreber, 1776)

Hexane extracts of musk from the African civet (Civettictis civetta) were analyzed using Gas-chromatography-Mass-spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 39 volatile compounds were consistently detected in all musk categories. The majority of the identified musk components were from four classes of organic compounds; Carboxylic Acids (38.5%), Alcohols (12.8), ketone (12.8%) and Aldehydes (5.1%). Five musk components (9-Cycloheptadecen-1-one, (Z); Octadecanoic acid; 9-Octadecenoic acid (E); 9-Cycloheptadecen-1-ol; and Cycloheptadecanone) were more abundant than the rest and accounted for 64.62-80.93% of the average percent area of chromatogram across all musk categories. Civetone, the most abundant compound across all age and sex categories, ranges from 54.5-69.71%. 21 of the 39 musk compounds were common to all musk samples. Adult male and female civets comprised the highest number of musk compounds (94.8%). Musk from sub-adult civets lacks some of the lower molecular weight acids, and some higher molecular weight compounds. While two compounds (Oleic acid and Squalene) were unique to adult male civets, two (1,5,9-Undecatrien,2,6,10-trimethyl-(Z) and Heptadecane) were found only in the adult females. Scent marked musk of both dry and wet seasons lack acids of lower molecular weight but contain all of the dominant and most of the higher molecular weight musk compounds.