PERFUME RAW MATERIALS

Perfume raw materials can be divided into three categories:

1. Plants Oils
2. Animal Secretions
3. Chemical Substances

 

The essential oils are obtained from various parts of the plants, depending upon the oil under study. They come from seeds like Anise, the twings like Rose-wood, and from almost every part of the plant. Sometime oils are obtained from more than one part of the same plant, as Cinnamon Oil, obtained from the bank and the leaf.

The essential oil is a complex mixture of many different chemical bodies, some of which have been isolated, analysed, and reconstituted synthetically, and others are still of unknown structurer. Essential oils are subjected to the changes the of a product made by nature. From one harvest to another, from one climate to the other, the oils are likely to show certain variations.

Flower oils are the essences obtained from the plants by extraction with violative or non-volatile solvents. These products referred as “Absolutes”.

There are four processes for flower oil production are as follows:

1. Votatile Solvent Extraction.
2. Immersion in warm fats (Maceration).
3. Extraction by clod fats (Enfleurage).
4. Mechanical Extraction.

In the Mechanical Extraction process oil bearing plant material pressing by mechanically. It is suitable only for Citrus Oils and is used to obtain the oils of Lemon, Orange, Grapes Fruit, Lime and some other obscure products. These oils usually contain large proportions of terpenes. These terpenes can be removed completely from essential oil. Oils free from the terpenes are called “Terpenesless Oils”. The terpenes oils do not possess the original characteristic odour and flavour of the essential oil.

Animal secretions are among the most interesting and valued perfume materials. The following example of Animal Secretions:

• Musk
• Civet
• Ambergris
• Castoreum         

These materials are different from each other in many respects, notably odour and chemical constituents. All of these Secretions are used for the Fixation of the Perfume.

Many materials can be obtained from more than one oil. For example, Linalool is present in the oil of Linaloe seed, Bergamot, rose, Jasmin and Rosewood, among others. The perfumer preferred Linalool obtained from Linaloe Seed oil and Rose Wood oil. Linalool obtained from Petitgrain is considered of secondary quality. From an economic point of view Rose and Jasmine cannot be considered as sources of Linalool.

Derivatives of plant materials include products of esterification, such as:

• Formates
• Acetates
• Propionates
• Ester of citronellol, linalool, geraniol, rhodinol, terpineol etc. as linalyl acetate and geranyl acetates for example
• Products of hydroxylation, such as hydroxycitronellol.
• Products of cyclization, such as ionones from citral.
• Synthetic organic substances plat a vital role in the perfumery industry. These substances are classified by their functional groups such as:
• Aliphatic Alcohols (Phenyl ethyl alcohol, Benzyl alcohol, etc.).
• Aliphatic Aldehydes (Cyclamen aldehydes, Amyl cinnamic aldehyde, etc.).
• Aromatic Ketones.
• Macrocyclic Lactones.