The effect of permanganate oxidation on the formation and degradation of wood odorant beta-cyclocitral in water was investigated. Oxidation experiments were conducted for beta-cyclocitral prepared from pure chemicals and extracted from Microcystis aeruginosa. The data were simulated with appropriate kinetic rate models. The formation and degradation of beta-cyclocitral during the oxidation of beta-carotene were also monitored and modeled. The degradation of beta-cyclocitral prepared from pure chemicals followed second-order kinetics with a rate constant of 91.7 +/- 2.4 M(-1) s(-1),and that of the beta-cyclocitral precursor, beta-carotene, followed first-order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.0054 +/- 0.0004 min(-1). During the oxidation of beta-carotene, beta-cyclocitral was produced. The formation and degradation can both be simulated by first-order kinetics with respect to beta-carotene and beta-cyclocitral concentrations, respectively. The degradation rate of beta-cyclocitral produced from beta-carotene was found to be much slower than that for beta-cyclocitral obtained from pure chemicals, very likely due to a mass transfer limitation. The kinetic models were further employed to simulate the oxidation of beta-cyclocitral in the presence of beta-carotene and for beta-cyclocitral extracted from M. aeruginosa, respectively. The models well predict/fit the experimental data, with rate constants similar to other experiments, indicating that the models may be used for simulating the formation and degradation of beta-cyclocitral in water treatment systems. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.