From (+)-sabinene (8), the proposed biosynthetic route to generate thujone follows a three-step pathway: (+)-sabinene is first oxidized to an isomer of (+)-sabinol (9-1,2) by a cytochrome P450 enzyme, followed by conversion to (+)-sabinone (10) via a dehydrogenase. Finally, a reductase mediates the conversion to α-thujone (11-1) and β-thujone (11-2). The isomerism of the (+)-sabinol intermediate varies among thujone-producing plants; for instance, in the western redcedar ("Thuja plicata"), thujone is derived exclusively from the (+)-"trans"-sabinol intermediate (9-1) whereas in the common garden sage ("Salvia officinalis"), thujone is formed from the (+)-"cis"-sabinol intermediate (9-2).