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Patchouli Oil

Patchouli oil is extracted through steam distillation of the leaves of the patchouli plant. It has a dark orange or brown color and possesses a rich, sweet-herbaceous, aromatic-spicy, and woody-balsamic odor. Patchouli oil is widely used in perfumes, flavors, and other products due to its versatility and ability to blend well with many other scents. It is used in oriental, woody, and fougere perfume bases and can help mask unpleasant odors. Patchouli oil extraction and quality can vary depending on the source and method of production.

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Silvio Serpa
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© © All Rights Reserved
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80 views

Patchouli Oil

Patchouli oil is extracted through steam distillation of the leaves of the patchouli plant. It has a dark orange or brown color and possesses a rich, sweet-herbaceous, aromatic-spicy, and woody-balsamic odor. Patchouli oil is widely used in perfumes, flavors, and other products due to its versatility and ability to blend well with many other scents. It is used in oriental, woody, and fougere perfume bases and can help mask unpleasant odors. Patchouli oil extraction and quality can vary depending on the source and method of production.

Uploaded by

Silvio Serpa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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S C E N T S P I R ACY VIEW ORIGINAL

PATCHOULI OIL
October 23, 2020 by Fulvio Ciccolo
what is PATCHOULI ?

NATURAL FRAGRANCE /
PERFUME INGREDIENT
OVERVIEW
Botanical Name: Pogostemon Cablin

Olfactive description
Patchouli Oil (native distilled) is a dark orange or
brownish-colored, viscous liquid, possessing an
extremely rich, sweet-herbaceous, aromatic-spicy, and
woody-balsamic odor. An almost wine-like, ethereal-
floral sweetness in the initial notes is characteristic of
good oils although this top-note can be absent or
masked in freshly distilled, otherwise good oils. The
odor should remain sweet through all stages of
evaporation. Patchouli oil will remain perceptible on a
perfume blotter for weeks or months, and the
sweetness is almost sickening in high concentration.
Dry or tar-like notes should not be perceptible
throughout the first hours of study of the oil on a
blotter, and cade-like, dry cedarwood like odor which
may appear in the top-note should rapidly vanish and
give way to the rich sweetness. Thus, it remains a
“matter of opinion” what type of patchouli oil is “good”
and what type is “poor”. Many perfumers have never—or
rarely—smelled other types than the dry, phenolic, cade-
like type. This type may be their standard of evaluation,
or they may actually like to use this type. In both cases,
it can be said that the body-notes of patchouli oil
should display an outstanding richness, a root-like note
with a delicate earthiness which should not include
“mold-like” or musty-dry notes. The odor of patchouli
oil is often described as “minty”, “swampy”, “barnyard-
like”, etc. and there is no doubt that the many types
confuse the inexperienced evaluator. Tenacity in odor is
one of the typical virtues of patchouli oil and is one of
the reasons for its versatile use. 

— Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, S.


Arctander (1961)

Specific character: Woody Earthy

Where it grows

The plant is cultivated for the production of essential oil


in Sumatra, Malaysia, the Seychelle islands, Nossi-Bé (at
Madagascar), Hainan, and the adjoining China coast,
and, on a smaller scale in Japan, Brazil, Mauritius, and
Tanganyika. Indonesian patchouli leaves are distilled in
Europe and the U.S.A. in modern distilleries, but the oil
thus produced is substantially different from the locally
distilled patchouli oil.   

— Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, S.


Arctander (1961)

Method of extraction

In order to get a full yield of the essential oil by steam


distillation, it is necessary to rupture the cell walls in the
leaf material prior to distillation. This can be performed
by controlled, light fermentation, by scalding with
superheated steam (like the “blanching” process of
vegetables before canning), or by stacking or baling
the dried leaves, thus “curing” them by modest and
interrupted fermentation. If carried out properly, the
latter method yields the best perfume oil.

— Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, S.


Arctander (1961)

How or when to use it

Patchouli Oil is used so extensively that it is hardly


possible to specify its field of application. It blends
beautifully with labdanum, vetiver. sandalwood,
ionones, cedarwood derivatives, coumarin, oakmoss,
geranium, clove oils, lavender. rose, bergamot, neroli,
orris “resinoid”, nitro musks, cinnamates, methyl
salicylate, cassia oil, myrrh, opopanax, sage clary
absolute, borneol, pine needle oils, cyclohexanone
derivatives, etc., etc. It forms an important ingredient in
Oriental bases, woody bases, fougères, chypres,
opopanax bases, powder-type perfumes, etc. It is an
excellent masking agent for depilatory creams, e.g. in
combination with orange type materials. 

In flavors, patchouli oil once was widely used in the


“Sen-Sen” type of licorice flavoring. Combined with
geranium, ionones, orris extracts. nitro musks, anise,
clove, etc., it produced a very heavy “Oriental” flavor,
popular as a masking agent for alcoholic breath, onion
or garlic odors. etc. as an “after-dinner” candy. The
rather soapy perfume flavor is no longer very popular in
Europe; it is slowly disappearing in the U.S.A. but is still
used in Asia and South America. 

— Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, S.


Arctander (1961)
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Appearance

European or American distilled patchouli oil is a pale


orange or amber-colored, viscous liquid of very sweet,
rich, spicy-aromatic, and herbaceous odor; it bears an
overall resemblance to the odor of the native oil, but
has a pronounced top note of fruity, wine-like
sweetness, and less pronounced woody-earthy notes.
The odor is often spicier balsamic and usually more
tenacious than that of the native oil. Certain distillers in
Europe and at one time in the U. S. A., too, have a
reputation for special know-how in the distilling of
patchouli. In all cases, whether it is of native or
European- American distillation, the odor of the oil
improves significantly upon aging. The sharp-green or
“wet-earthy”, minty notes are subdued or vanish, and
the sweet fess rises to the surface of the odor pattern. 

— Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, S.


Arctander (1961)

Chemistry

Patchouli Oil is occasionally adulterated with


cedarwood oil, clove oil sesquiterpenes, cedarwood
derivatives, methyl abietate, hydroabietic alcohols,
vetiver residues, camphor oil residues, etc. However,
the present price of patchouli, due to the abundance of
the oil on the market, has made it less interesting to
“cut” this useful perfume material. 
:
Certain types of patchouli extracts are processed
further, e.g. by molecular distillation (Anhydrols,
Resinoines, etc.) to yield almost colorless, viscous oils
of great olfactory value and outstandingly attractive
odor type and diffusive power. A second extraction of
the petroleum ether extract (of patchouli leaves) with
ethyl alcohol yields a true absolute of patchouli, the
“heart” of the patchouli odor. Essential oil chemists
have investigated the composition of patchouli oil for
more than half a century, and it has been claimed that
more than 80% of the oil is constituted of odorless or
almost odorless chemicals. Consequently, it should be
possible to “concentrate” the odor of patchouli
considerably. It seems conceivable that the main
portion of patchouli oil can be removed by fractional
distillation without depriving the small remainder of
having the typical patchouli odor. Similar experiments
have been carried out with lavandin oil, petitgrain oil,
clove bud oil, geranium oil, sage clary oil, etc. 

— Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, S.


Arctander (1961)

Impact

Top to base note

Resinoid

Patchouli Resinoid is, a concrète extracted from the


dried leaves by hydrocarbon solvents. Benzene or
petroleum ether are used. The extract is a syrupy or
very viscous liquid of dark orange-brown color
(benzene extract), or dark amber to pale orange color
:
(petroleum ether extract). Beyond its olfactory virtues
which are similar to those of the European- American
distilled patchouli oils, it is an excellent fixative. Various
so-called patchouli resinoids are available, but some of
these materials are heavily adulterated with oakmoss
resins, patchouli oil, clove bud resinoid, vetiver oil
residues, cedarwood oil residues, etc. 

— Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, S.


Arctander (1961)

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