Benzyl alcohol is an aromatic alcohol with the formula C6H5CH2OH. The benzyl group is often abbreviated "Bn" (not to be confused with "Bz" which is used for benzoyl), thus benzyl alcohol is denoted as BnOH. Benzyl alcohol is a colorless liquid with a mild pleasant aromatic odor. It is a useful solvent due to its polarity, low toxicity, and low vapor pressure. Benzyl alcohol has moderate solubility in water (4 g/100 mL) and is miscible in alcohols and diethyl ether. The anion produced by deprotonation of the alcohol group is known as benzylate or benzyloxide. Natural occurrences
Benzyl alcohol is produced naturally by many plants and is commonly found in fruits and teas. It is also found in a variety of essential oils including jasmine, hyacinth and ylang-ylang. It is also found in castoreum from the castor sacs of beavers. Benzyl esters also occur naturally. Preparation
Benzyl alcohol is produced industrially from toluene via benzyl chloride, which is hydrolyzed:

C6H5CH2Cl + H2O → C6H5CH2OH + HClAnother route entails hydrogenation of benzaldehyde, a by-product of the oxidation of toluene to benzoic acid.For laboratory use, Grignard reaction of phenylmagnesium bromide (C6H5MgBr) with formaldehyde and the Cannizzaro reaction of benzaldehyde also give benzyl alcohol. The latter also gives benzoic acid, an example of an organic disproportionation reaction. Reactions
Like most alcohols, it reacts with carboxylic acids to form esters. In organic synthesis, benzyl esters are popular protecting groups because they can be removed by mild hydrogenolysis.Benzyl alcohol reacts with acrylonitrile to give N-benzylacrylamide.
The system does have clinical utility; however factors such as cytogenetic status are not within the remit of the classification. For this reason, many disease entities in these groups show a great deal of heterogeneity. WHO classification
In 2001, the WHO Classification of Myeloid Neoplasms was published, classifying CMML into a new group of diseases, the myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN), reflecting the diseases neoplastic nature. Other diseases in this category are juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia, atypical CML; BCR-ABL1 negative and MDS/MPD unclassifiable. These MDS/MPN overlap syndromes have effective production of some lineages of blood cells, but show ineffective proliferation of other lineages. The 2008 revision of the classification moved cases of CMML with PDGFR gene translocations to a new group, myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms with eosinophilia with abnormalities of PDGFRA, PDGFRB or FGFR1. Diagnostic criteria
FAB criteria
The FAB criteria for diagnosis are as follows:
Monocyte count >1x109/L
0–19% blasts in bone marrow
<5% blasts in peripheral bloodThe FAB also arbitrarily categorises CMML into myelodysplastic-like and myeloproliferative-like groups. A white blood count of 13x109 is used as a cut-off to differentiate the two.