coumarin, an organic compound having the characteristic odour of new-mown hay, obtainable from the tonka tree (native to Guyana) or by chemical synthesis. It is used in perfumes and flavourings and for the preparation of other chemicals.
Coumarin belongs to the heterocyclic class of organic compounds, because its molecule contains a ring of atoms of more than one element. The presence of coumarin in the tonka bean, in which it occurs combined with the sugar glucose, was observed in 1820; its synthesis in 1868 by the English chemist Sir William Henry Perkin was the first application of a general chemical reaction now known by his name.
Several other compounds present in plants, either free or combined with glucose, possess the coumarin structure. One of these is dicoumarol, first isolated from spoiled sweet clover hay; it is used in medicine to reduce the tendency of the blood to clot.