Jasmine, sources

Jasmin. "If the rose is the queen of flowers, the jasmin is the fairest and prettiest priacess. The two together reign supreme ia the world of flowers as well as ia the world of perfume" (12). As ia the case of rose, jasmin has been the subject of many iavestigations, and mote than 95 compounds have been identified to date ia extracts of Jasminum officinale L. vat. grandijlorum, the source of commercial jasmin ok, concrete, and absolute. The principal components ate shown ia Table 3 (13). 

The colorants from saffron have enjoyed good technological success as colorants and spices but their high price has led to searches for other sources of the same pigments. The pigments, but not the flavor, can be obtained in much larger quantities from the fmits of the gardenia or Cape jasmine plant.33... 

Source Naturally occurs in cranberries, ligonberries (1,360 ppm), peppermint leaves (20-200 ppb), tea leaves, cassia bark, carob, blessed thistle, purple foxglove, jasmine, hyacinth, apples, tobacco leaves, daffodils, autumn crocus, prunes, anise seeds, ripe cloves, and wild black cherry tree bark (Duke, 1992 quoted, Verschueren, 1983). 

Source Indole was detected in jasmine flowers Jasminum officinale), licorice [Glycyrrhiza glabra), kohlrabi stems [Brassica oleraceavAT. gongylodes), and hyacinth flowers Hyacinthus orientalid at concentrations of 42 to 95, 2, 1.33, and 0.24 to 3.45 ppm, respectively. Indole also occurs in tea leaves, black locust flowers, corn leaves, petitgrain, and yellow elder (Duke, 1992). 

Before this century, perfumes commanded such a price that only the wealthiest people could afford them. This is because perfumers relied on natural sources for their ingredients. Most of these ingredients are in limited supply and are expensive to produce. For instance, it takes about 7 000 000 jasmine flowers to produce 1 kg of oil. The flowers have to be picked by hand (no-one has yet devised a mechanical method of harvesting jasmine) in the first few hours of the day when their oil content is at its highest (Figure 3.3). In view of the costs of cultivation and extraction, it is not surprising to find that jasmine oils cost in the region of 2000/kg. 

It is not possible to obtain the essential oil directly from jasmine flowers. The scented material is isolated by enfleurage and subsequent extraction with hexane, benzene or ethanol. Jasmine absolue is a red-brown liquid, which darkens further on storage and possesses a delicate jasmine odour. From a tonne of hand-picked petals, one may obtain 1-3 kilograms of jasmine absolue. The most important sources at the present time are Egypt, Italy, Morocco, India and... 

Z)-Jasmone (with the odor of jasmine) and a-damascone (odor of roses) have heart notes, as do the ionones (with the odor of violets). All of these ketones can be obtained from natural sources. 

The famous Chanel No.5 was the first and still is the commercially most successful perfume that used synthetic fragrant chemicals in addition to those from natural sources. Coco (Gabriel) Chanel asked her perfumer Ernst Beaux to produce several feminine perfumes. He presented to her ten products numbered, out of which Ms. Chanel picked No. 5, because 5 was her lucky number. Chanel No.5 was further popularized by Ms. Marilyn Monroe. It uses jasmine oil obtained from jasmine... 

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