GC-MS analysis of chemical composition differences between muskrat musk and musk
Musk is a dry secretion from the mature male sachets of Moschus berezovskii Flerov, Moschus sifanicus Przewalski, and Moschus moschiferus Linnaeus, all belonging to the musk family. It was first recorded in the “Shennong Bencao Jing” and has a medicinal history of more than 2000 years. Its warm nature, pungent taste, and ability to return to the heart and spleen meridians have the effects of opening the orifices, awakening the mind, promoting blood circulation and meridian circulation, reducing swelling and pain. Musk is a nationally protected wild animal at the first level. In order to protect musk resources and meet the needs of the pharmaceutical industry, artificial musk is often used in clinical practice. However, the efficacy of artificial musk is far inferior to natural musk. This herb records that civet musk and muskrat musk have similar effects to musk. Muskrat musk is a milky white secretion from the gland sacs of adult male muskrats (Ondatra zibethica Linnaeus) in the family Cricetidae of the order Rodentia. It has anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, promotes blood circulation and blood stasis, and has a fragrant opening effect. It is used for treating conditions such as abscesses and swelling, stroke coma, and injuries caused by falls. Research has found that musk contains the same components as musk, such as muscone, cyclopentadecanone, and other similar macroketones. It has also been found that musk has a scent similar to musk. Modern pharmacological experiments have shown that the pharmacological effects of muskrat musk are similar to those of natural musk. It can have anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, slow down heart rate, lower blood pressure, enhance heart function, reduce blood viscosity, improve myocardial ischemia, and protect the heart from ischemic injury. It can also promote animal growth and has broad prospects in anti-aging and treatment of coronary heart disease. In the context of scarce natural musk resources, both domestic and international efforts are seeking new resources, and muskrat musk may become a new resource for musk medicine. This study used GC-MS to analyze the chemical composition of muskrat musk and musk, compare the differences in their components, and determine the content of cyclopentadecanone in muskrat musk, providing a scientific basis for the use of muskrat musk as medicine and the development and utilization of its resources.

The experimental results showed that muskrat musk and musk contain common components such as tetradecanoic acid, cyclopentadecanone, hexadecanoic acid, oleic acid, stearic acid, and cholesterol. Both contain similar types of components, including esters, fatty acids, macrocyclic ketones, and steroids. Literature research shows that musk contains cyclopentadecanone and muscone, indicating that it can be a new resource for musk medicine. However, in this experiment, muscone control samples were used for comparison, and the results showed that musk does not contain muscone in musk. Moreover, previous literature research has shown inconsistent results regarding the presence of muscone in musk. Scholars such as Liu, Zhao, and Peng have detected muscone in muskrat musk, while Hu, Mou, Zhao, and Li did not. This may be due to the low resolution of previous instruments and the lack of reference standards at that time, which resulted in similar peak times for the two substances, leading to the mistaken identification of cyclopentadecanone as muscone. Although muskrat musk does not contain muscone, it contains various macrocyclic ketone compounds, among which cyclopentadecanone and cycloheptadecanone have relatively high contents, accounting for 9.89% and 19.1% respectively. Hu et al. proved through the isolation and identification of macrocyclic ketone components in musk, civet musk, and muskrat musk that macrocyclic ketone compounds are the main components of musk drugs and the main substances with aromatic opening. Therefore, cyclopentadecanone and cycloheptadecanone in muskrat musk are its main aromatic components and the material basis for its pharmacological effects. Research has shown that muscone has various effects such as anti dementia, anti cerebral ischemia, anti-inflammatory, anti myocardial ischemia, anti-tumor, anti early pregnancy, and anti implantation. At the same time, it can also excite the central nervous system. However, there has been no research on whether cyclopentadecanone and cyclopentadecanone have the same pharmacological effects, which can be used as the next research goal to compare the differences in muscone and its pharmacological effects, and provide scientific theoretical basis for musk to become a new medicinal resource.
Muskrat musk also contains fatty acid components such as palmitic acid, palmitic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, etc. Studies have found that fatty acid compounds have strong antioxidant effects and have activities such as regulating blood lipids, softening blood vessels, lowering blood pressure, anti platelet aggregation, promoting microcirculation, as well as immune regulatory effects such as anti-tumor and improving the relative fluidity of biofilms. Linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid for human and animal growth and development. Oleic acid has the effect of reducing blood fat and preventing arteriosclerosis. Palmitoleic acid has a certain effect on obesity, diabetes and fatty liver. It can prevent or reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases, inhibit wound inflammation and improve skin smoothness. At the same time, animal pharmacological experiments have shown that the musk rat fragrance series cosmetics have strong anti-aging activity, can promote SOD activity in the skin, inhibit the production of lipid peroxide malondialdehyde (MDA), reduce the content of lipofuscin and the activity of monoamine oxidase (MAO-B), and also have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and skin metabolism promoting effects, with good moisturizing effects. In addition, Xu’s research found that muskrat musk can inhibit platelet aggregation, prolong PT (prothrombin) and TT (thrombin) time, inhibit red blood cell aggregation, reduce the fragility of red blood cells, increase their deformability, and lower whole blood viscosity, thus having the effect of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, which can prevent the occurrence of thrombotic diseases. The effect of muskrat musk on promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis may be related to the unsaturated fatty acids it contains, and the specific mechanism needs further research.
Muskrat is not only widely used in pharmacology, but also has pure fragrance, mild odor and lasting fragrance. It is also a good fixative, which can be used to make perfume, cream, cream, etc. It can be widely used in the daily chemical industry. The esters, fatty acids, and macrocyclic ketones contained in muskrat scent make muskrat scent have the material basis of natural animal spices. It is another precious natural animal spice after the four famous perfumes of musk, civet, beaver, and ambergris. Muskrat scent has broad application prospects in the spice, daily chemical industry, and pharmaceutical industry. This article establishes a GC-MS analysis method for muskrat musk and simultaneously determines the content of cyclopentadecanone. The differences in composition between muskrat musk and musk are compared, providing a scientific theoretical basis for the rational utilization of muskrat musk resources.