MY ADDITION TO THE FRAGRANCE FAMILIES

MY ADDITION TO THE FRAGRANCE FAMILIES

Raymond J. Sucgang, R.Ch.

            A perfume is “a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent.” (Meriam Webster Dictionary).

The basis to describe a perfume is to categorize the different  fragrance families.

The traditional categories which materialized around 1900 are as follows:

·         Single Floral: Fragrances that are dominated by a scent from one particular flower; in French called a soliflore.

·         Floral Bouquet: Containing the combination of several flowers in a scent.

·         Ambery: A large fragrance class featuring the scents of vanilla and animal scents together with flowers and woods. Can be enhanced by camphorous oils and incense resins.

·         Woody: Fragrances that are dominated by woody scents, typically of sandalwood and cedar. Patchouli, with its camphoraceous smell, is commonly found in these perfumes.

·         Leather: A family of fragrances which features the scents of honey, tobacco, wood and wood tars in its middle or base notes and a scent that alludes to leather.

·         Chypre: Meaning cyprus in French, this includes fragrances built on a similar accord consisting of bergamot, oakmoss, patchouli, and labdanum. This family of fragrances is named after a perfume by Francois Coty. Pronounced: sheep-ra

·         Fougère: Meaning fern in French, built on a base of lavedner, coumarin, and oakmoss. Many men's fragrances belong to this family of fragrances, which is characterized by its sharp herbaceous and woody scent. (The perfumed court.com).

New categories came into being since 1945 to describe modern scents. These were brought about by new technologies in the study of natural products and organic synthesis. The modern classifications are:

·         Bright Floral: combining the traditional Single Floral and Floral Bouquet categories.

·         Green: a lighter and more modern interpretation of the Chypre type.

·         Oceanic/Ozone: the newest category in perfume history, appearing in 1991. A very clean, modern smell leading to many of the modern androgynous perfumes.

·         Citrus or Fruity: An old fragrance family that are until recently consisted mainly of "freshening" eau de colognes due to the low tenacity of citrus scents. Development of newer fragrance compounds has allowed for the creation of primarily citrus fragrances.

·         Gourmand: scents with "edible" or "dessert"-like qualities. These often contain notes like vanilla and tonka bean, as well as synthetic components designed to resemble food flavours. (The perfumed court.com).

          There can never be a definite grouping of perfumes since most fragrances contain flares of many families. There are rarely scents that cosist of single aromatic material. In modern perfumery additional classification however such as, Aldehydic, Spicy, Minty, Oriental, Herbaceous, Ozonic, etc.,

          Aldehydes are a class of organic compound containing the –CHO group. Aldehydes have been used in modern perfumery as so many aldehydes have different smells and they have been assigned a group called the “aldehydic note.” The famous perfume Chanel No. 5 contains a mixture of aldehydes "C-11 undecylic" or "C-110" (undecanal), "C-11 undecylenic" (10-undecenal) and "C-12" (dodecanal). There are however many other aldehydic perfumes before Chanel No. 5 (www.fragrantica.com).

            Spicy Perfumes are Warm, intense perfumes filled with exotic spices. Spicy perfumes and fragrances are perfume scents that have spice in the composition are made from anything that you would find in a spicthe namee rack in the kitchen like cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, pepper cloves and nutmeg are combined with oriental materials (www.perfume.com).

          Minty perfumes resemble the smell of Mentha piperita. They give off a refreshing clean scent and becomes specially unique if blended with deeper notes. Carolina Herera mint best represents this group of perfumes.

           “Oriental” is well-known by its warm, sensual notes like vanilla, musk, spices and amber.  Oriental perfumes are best represented by  Yves Saint Laurent Opium.

              Herbaceous perfumes as name suggests, have the strong identity of herbs in the blend. According to Pinterest, herbaceous perfumes are “scents that are fresh, outdoorsy, aromatic and clean” (Pinterst.com)

               ‘Ozonic' or 'aquatic' fragrances have a watery, limpid feeling with a humble  fresh sea-like notes and have a 'watery' fresh-citrusy effect. It is a combination of 'watery fruit' like (water) melon, cucumber, rhubarb... and not so strong florals. And all that 'watered down' with a lot of cheap alcohol (www.fragrantica.com).

              This classification has been used by perfumers over the years in order to easily group perfumes into families. However, like real “families,” these fragrance families can also have many members. Members of a family can have a characteristic of its own that make it distinct from the other members of that family.

              Inspired by the lush vegetation surrounding my private laboratory, the R.J.Sucgang Center for Research in the Natural Sciences, in Napti, Batan, Aklan, Philippines’, Dioscorea species were abundantly growing wild in a forested hill near the lab. One particular vine which caught my attention was the wild “white ube,” a variety of the customary purple ube (yam) which were so plentiful in the area. “Ube” (Dioscorea alata), are rootcrops produced by clinging vines; these yams are normally make delicious jams and ice creams which are common favorite flavors of Filipinos.

             Dioscorea alata is slender creeping vine reaching a length of several meters. The leaf-stalk slightly purple at both points of attachment. Tubers are usually bright lavender in color, occasionally white. Root is tumorous, often with small axillary tubers (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/29771#tosummaryOfInvasiveness).

             The ube has a distinct aroma which is moderately strong and nice smelling. Among the fragrance families, I cannot see a classification where ube can be categorized. The unique aroma however, is so appealing and would certainly be an excellent addition to the family of fragrances. The wild ube species seem to have a stronger aroma than the native varieties.

             The chemicals present in the ube are the ones that make the root crop so delectable. Twenty nine compounds made of hydrocarbons, eight alcohols, eight aldehydes, a furan, and a disulfide, in addition to hydrogen sulfide and a number of high boiling fatty acids were reported by previous studies in Dioscorea alata. Five additional components were identified by GLC-MS and by thin layer chromatography of derivatives. The major constituent of the acid-free essence was found to be 4-Phenylbutan-2-one (http://www.stuartxchange.org/Ubi).

            The preparation of ube extract involved maceration of the root crop accessions, followed by a series of solvent extraction using absolute ethanol. The solvent extracts were combined and concentrated by distillation at 55 degrees Celsius, under reduced pressure. The resulting mixture was blended to floral essential oils from Sampaguita (Jasminum sambac), woody, and citrus notes, fixative, PPG, water, and benzohenone to produce a “hot” accord which is now known as “