Salicylaldehyde be prepared from the corresponding phenol by the Duff reaction, or by treatment with paraformaldehyde in the presence of magnesium chloride and a base. Salicylaldehyde was identified as a characteristic aroma component of buckwheat. It is also one of the components of castoreum, the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North American beaver ("Castor canadensis") and the European beaver ("Castor fiber"), used in perfumery. Furthermore, salicylaldehyde occurs in the larval defensive secretions of several leaf beetle species that belong the subtribe Chrysomelina. An example for a leaf beetle species that produces salicylaldehyde is the red poplar leaf beetle
Castor and Pollux Castor and Pollux Castor and Pollux (or in Greek, Polydeuces) were twin half-brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri. Their mother was Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. In Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini (literally "twins")