Nature’s plants come in a myriad of forms, each with its own unique scent, providing diverse olfactory experiences. This leads one to wonder: where do the scents in plants originate, and how can they be preserved?
01 What Are Essential Oils?
Essential oils refer to highly concentrated aromatic substances extracted from various parts of plants, such as flowers, leaves, roots, and stems. These oils can be obtained through methods like steam distillation, solvent extraction, cold pressing, and carbon dioxide extraction.
02 Why Do Plants Produce Essential Oils?
- Defense Against External Threats: In humid environments, essential oils can protect plants from pathogens and repel insects and animals. If a plant is injured, essential oils can also aid in faster healing.Despite engaging in photosynthesis, plants still require the protection offered by essential oils to guard against the harm caused by UV radiation and radiation. In cases of forest fires, the volatile nature of essential oils allows them to burn upward, protecting seeds and roots, enabling the plant to regenerate after the fire.
- Aiding in Growth: Plant growth relies on hormones, and an imbalance in hormone levels can be harmful. Essential oils serve as signaling molecules that assist in the transmission of hormones and help maintain hormonal balance. Due to their small molecular size, essential oils can penetrate plant tissues, accelerate metabolism, and facilitate the transport of oxygen and nutrients. They can also trigger pheromone effects, attracting animals that aid in pollination.(Fun Fact: Pheromones are chemical substances used for communication between individuals and are different from hormones, which are transported through the bloodstream to cells or tissues within the body. Pheromones are released outside the individual’s body and affect other organisms within a limited range.)
03 Source of Essential Oils:
Glandular Reservoirs While there are approximately 370,000 plant species in nature, only a small fraction of them can produce essential oils. These plants typically have “glandular reservoirs” responsible for storing scents, which act as a medium for transmitting information when needed.
The location of glandular reservoirs varies from plant to plant, commonly found in petals, roots, leaves, or tree bark. For instance, rose essential oil is extracted from petals, while bergamot essential oil comes from the rind of the fruit. By extracting from these glandular reservoirs, we obtain the common plant essential oils we are familiar with.
04 Having Essential Oils ≠ Usable
Having glandular reservoirs is a necessary condition for plants to produce essential oils. However, the ability to extract essential oils from these plants doesn’t necessarily mean they can be used in perfumes. There are several reasons why certain plants’ scents cannot be utilized:
- Fruits and Vegetables with Low Essential Oil Content: Many scents attributed to fruits and vegetables in perfumes are synthetically created. Only the rinds of certain citrus fruits, like lemon, orange, and bergamot, contain enough essential oils for extraction. Other parts of these fruits are often water-rich and have low essential oil content. These essential oils have a short lifespan and can easily oxidize, especially when the fruit deteriorates.
- Low Quantity, High Cost: Some plants can produce essential oils, but their oil content is so low that the cost of extraction is prohibitively expensive for most consumers. Therefore, many perfumery brands opt for synthetic fragrances due to cost considerations, with only some high-end luxury brands utilizing these natural essential oils.
- Natural Oils That Are Harmful to Humans: Some plants naturally contain toxins or carcinogenic compounds in their essential oils, making them unsafe for use. Examples include bitter almond, camphor, and calamus essential oils, which are toxic or carcinogenic.
- Synthetic Reproduction of Nutty Scents: Scents from nuts, such as almond, walnut, and peanut, are typically synthesized artificially. These plants yield oils that are not true essential oils but rather vegetable oils. These oils are rich in unsaturated fatty acids and glycerol, providing nourishment to the skin but lacking the volatility required to be classified as essential oils. Additionally, the nutty scents in perfumes are usually created through artificial means and often differ from the natural scent of the nuts.
05 Common Natural Essential Oils
- Floral Scents:
- Rose: Often referred to as “liquid gold,” it takes about 4,000 roses to produce just one drop of rose essential oil. Only a few perfumes use natural rose essential oil.
- Jasmine: There are two main types of jasmine, Grandiflorum and Sambac. Chinese native jasmine is the Sambac variety, known for its delicate fragrance.
- Lavender: The most famous lavender comes from the Provence region in France. It has a mild and fragrant scent with a hint of grassiness.
- Orange Blossom: Orange blossom oil, also known as neroli oil, is obtained through solvent extraction from orange blossom petals. It has a sweet floral scent with hints of indole and a slight grape-like sweetness, creating a warm and long-lasting fragrance.
- Neroli:
Neroli different from Neroli absolute. Neroli oil is obtained from the petals of orange flowers through distillation. It has a slightly astringent, sour green smell, a soapy feel, and a sweet floral aroma, retaining the herbal bitterness of the bitter orange branches and leaves. But because neroli smells more like citrus, it is classified as a citrus essential oil.
3.wooden：
- Cedar: It presents a dry woody scent in the perfume, which is low-key, calm and makes people feel safe and comfortable.
- Patchouli: It is a mint plant with a complex smell, bitter like traditional Chinese medicine, rich resinous aroma and herbal green smell.
- Vetiver: Often used as a fixative, vetiver has a dry woody aroma and a fresh, earthy aroma.
4. Spicy
- Pink pepper: often appears in modern rose perfumes. Its scent is complex, fruity, woody, and slightly smoky wood.
- Saffron: It is often used to create an Arabian style. It smells of sweet and slightly bitter tobacco leaves, with a spicy and smoky feel.
- Cardamom: Cardamom has a masculine and masculine temperament, with a warm and spicy aroma that goes perfectly with woody tones.
06 Artificial flavors continue to write the future
Natural flavors have created the history of perfumery, but they are also subject to constraints in the real world. The development of artificial flavors has broken the boundaries between smell and imagination, making originally expensive perfumes more approachable.
In gourmet perfumes, ethyl maltol can produce the smell of caramel and chocolate; in marine perfumes, watermelonone is responsible for simulating the smell of sea water. These innovative smells all originate from people’s imagination and creativity. We look forward to future perfumers, with the assistance of scientific development, bringing us more surprises.
Invite you to discuss: Do you know which plant smell can only be simulated artificially?
