The term raw materials defines substances of different origins, natural or synthetic, which - appropriately extracted from plants (once also from animals) or obtained in the laboratory thanks to particular chemical reactions - are used by creative perfumers (or "noses"). to compose perfumes.

There are over 5,000 raw materials available to a perfume creator: for convenience they are divided by olfactory affinities into groups called facets , which are in turn organized into families , a pyramid structure according to their degree of volatility.

It is the richest and most unexpected source of natural odorous substances that come from all countries of the world and their olfactory principle is contained in plants or animals.

Natural raw materials of plant origin come from various parts of plants, from citrus peel, aromatic plants, flowers, seeds, leaves, various parts of trees, roots, wood, rhizomes and pods.

In the past, odors coming from the glandular secretions of some animals were used, such as those of the civet or ambergris, an odorous substance that comes from the intestinal concretions of the sperm whale, a sort of "stone". Or, again, musk extracted from the sexual glands of the now almost extinct musk deer that lived in Tibet and China, and castoreum, a substance that the beaver secretes to waterproof its soft fur with a massive, strong and robust aroma.

These substances have now been replaced by synthetic molecules, given that their use is often limited and regulated in almost all countries of the world and their cost has reached extremely high levels.

The development of organic chemistry which led to the discovery of synthetic products for perfumery dates back to the end of the 19th century and has enriched and continues to enrich the "direction" of the perfumer, giving the possibility of giving greater originality to the compositions. In fact, the discovery of a large molecule often corresponds to the creation of a great perfume.

CITRUS FRUITS

The generic term citrus fruit refers to plants belonging to the Rutaceae family which includes the most characteristic sweet and bitter orange, bergamot, cedar, lime, lemon, mandarin and grapefruit and imported varieties and hybrids such as kumquat (originally from China, called also Chinese mandarin, smaller than its European counterpart), yuzu (a sweet lemon widely used by the Japanese) and lime (native to Southeast Asia, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean).

In perfumery, essential oils obtained by pressing from fruit peels belong to the citrus facet (or citrus, or citrus)

They bring sparkling and lively, sunny, fresh and tonic notes to the compositions.

HERBS

The history of aromatic and medicinal plants begins 4,000 years before our era on the coasts of Malabar, in south-west India, and is associated with the evolution of civilisations: just as an example, aromatic herbs have been used since time immemorial by the Egyptians to embalming or by the Chinese as a medicine... In all parts of the world, the history of peoples shows how these plants have always occupied an important place in medicine, in the composition of perfumes and in culinary preparations.

GOURMAND

It has been widely demonstrated that our sense of taste relies on smell to express itself more fully. Conversely, there are many terms that taste "lends" to smell to describe a smell. In fact, we are talking about sweet, sugary, acidic, sour, spicy, fizzy smells and many others that our olfactory and gustatory experiences suggest to us.

In perfumery they are defined delicious notes (or “gourmand”) the olfactory evocations of everything that can be tasted or drunk (excluding fresh fruit). From those used for a long time, such as vanilla, cocoa, honey, beeswax, to those of more recent use, coffee, cappuccino, liquorice, rum, pralines, chocolate... the delicious raw materials - both natural and synthetic (such as the aromatic aldehyde called vanillin and its recent derivatives) – offer an unlimited range of nuances.

The term “gourmand” entered the descriptive language of perfumes with Angel by Thierry Mugler in 1992, one of the first fragrances to combine oriental notes, full of charm and mystery, with chocolate, caramel and honey which sweeten its seduction, diluting it in a magical and fairy-tale atmosphere. Despite its very particular character, since its launch it has still confirmed itself as one of the most successful perfumes among the female public.

Starting from this progenitor, a long lineage of perfumes developed in which the "gourmand" facet is linked to different dominant personalities in a trend that is no longer limited to the female universe alone but also affects some male fragrances.

SPICES

Why do spices contain so powerfully the charm and exotic mystery of their countries of origin? Why is it that a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cumin is enough to evoke landscapes of distant places, flavours, colors and smells that are at the same time familiar and arcane? Spices have the magical power to transport us far away, to recreate in our imagination "Arabian Nights" atmospheres full of seduction.

Always considered a kind of luxury, used above all in the kitchen and for their medicinal virtues, spices have been known and appreciated since ancient times. A commodity sometimes more sought after than gold, they were one of the reasons that pushed merchants and explorers to seek new trade routes around the world. The Egyptians used herbs and spices for embalming and body cosmetics; the Phoenicians resold them throughout the Mediterranean; for centuries the Arabs were the privileged intermediaries in trade with the East and Africa south of the Sahara and kept the origin of the spices secret to ensure exclusivity. In the Renaissance, Venice and Genoa became the main centers where spices flowed and then reached all of Europe. In the 15th century, the Portuguese discovered new routes to the East and opened the Spice Route, the sea route from Europe to India and beyond to the Spice Islands (Moluccas). On the new trade route, spices such as pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon were mainly imported. The discovery of the route to circumnavigate Africa and the foundation of the East India Company definitively removed the monopoly of the spice trade from the ports of the Mediterranean basin.

The discovery of the New World also opened new frontiers: Cortes brought vanilla and chocolate back from Mexico and the Spanish planted ginger in their new colonies. India currently leads the world in the export of spices (mainly pepper, cardamom, ginger, cumin and curry) followed by Indonesia (pepper, nutmeg, cardamom), Brazil (pepper), Madagascar and Malaysia (pepper and ginger ). But spices have not accompanied the history of man only from a purely culinary or medicinal point of view: they have been used in cosmetics and perfumed ointments since the times of the ancient Egyptians. To the perfumed compositions of modern perfumery, spices give a strong, warm and passionate character to very strong male and female perfumes. Never too preponderant in a perfume, combined for example with flowers, the spicy facet enhances its charm and seductiveness with warm exuberance; it brilliantly highlights the ethnic touch of the woods; intensely highlights the opulent, mysterious and enveloping richness of oriental notes. There are spices used more frequently in feminine fragrances, such as cinnamon and pink berries, and others considered more "masculine" such as cardamom, black pepper and coriander.

SYNTHETIC MOLECULES

In the second half of the 19th century, the great scientific discoveries brought a decisive turning point in perfumery: researchers isolated, from natural plant and animal substances, many olfactory interesting molecules which led to the invention of products without equal in nature.

Nature and science are inextricably linked to each other and support each other: nature produces odorous molecules that give life to wonderful perfumes; science allows us to reproduce the smells of nature by fixing their characteristics, preserving species at risk of extinction.

The use of synthetic odorous molecules has broadened the choice of noses who today can count on a "collection" of over 5,000 raw materials from which to choose those most suited to their idea of ​​creation. The synthetic molecules are used not for their smell but to give an overall effect to the olfactory compositions.

The production of each new molecule represents substantial investments for years of research, followed by often long and complex manufacturing processes, toxicity tests and registrations of expensive patents before obtaining substances that will allow us to express new emotions.

And the search never stops. New horizons emerge with the results obtained from chiral chemistry based on the asymmetric synthesis process, which allows the isolation and production of innovative molecules (enantiomers), such as some fruity or musk notes, with very high olfactory performances. For the development of such methods, Professor Ryoji Noyori, member of the board of directors of Takasago Japan shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2001 with William S. Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless.

Raw material extraction techniques

Over time, artisans and manufacturing industries have developed diversified manufacturing processes to obtain the best odorous substances from plants depending on their physical state. Each process gives rise to different olfactory results which allow the collection of components available to the creator to be expanded.

Enfleurage, infusion and squeezing

The petals are placed on a glass plate, called a frame, covered with fat which absorbs the smell.
The operation is repeated approximately 30 times to obtain a scented ointment. The ointment is scraped from the frame and washed in alcohol, obtaining a perfumed oil which is filtered, giving rise to the "absolute" from which the perfume will be refined.

In hot enfleurage the petals are thrown into the melted fat in a bain-marie and mixed for two hours.
After about ten days, in which the flowers are renewed every day, the saturated fat is filtered according to the same procedure as cold enfleurage.

In both cases, the perfumed alcohol thus obtained is called "pure absolute in ointment".

Infusion

This is a particularly appropriate process for slowly maturing raw materials of vegetal origin, such as vanilla pods, iris rhizome, tonka beans, and of animal origin, such as civet, musk, amber and castoreum.
The substance is macerated in ethanol at variable concentrations and finished with filtration. If the operation occurs hot, it is called infusion, but if it occurs cold it is called dyeing.

Squeezing

Juicing is an extraction technique reserved for citrus peels, which uses mechanical actions such as scraping, pressure, centrifugation, etc...

The oil glands of the peel are compressed by a press or opened with rasps and the released oil is dragged with a current of water and then separated by centrifugation. More recently we proceed with squeezing using a hydraulic press, where the citrus fruits are chopped and their pulp steam distilled

Distillation

Water vapor distillation

Distillation is a very ancient technique, probably of Mesopotamian origin, which was developed by the Egyptians and perfected in the Middle Ages by the Arabs. It exploits the principle according to which most of the odorous molecules contained in a flower, a resin, a bunch can be transported by steam.

The substances to be distilled are mixed in a boiler (still) with a quantity of water equal to five times their weight. It is brought to the boil and the water turns into steam which passes through the odorous substances and is loaded with essential oils. This "odorous vapour", conveyed via a swan neck to a refrigerator (a long coil immersed in a container of cold water), condenses and drips into a settling vessel. Due to the difference in density, the essential oil is separated from the water (which remains scented and can be used) and collected. The result is light and medium volatile.

Molecular distillation

Common transformation processes generally produce absolutes or essential oils, the smell of which reflects part of the transformations undergone and does not always faithfully reflect that of the plant in its natural habitat. Thanks to the use of vacuum with a reduced steam circuit and at low temperatures, molecular distillation allows products with a high boiling point to be treated without damaging their odor.
During this process the colored materials are not distilled, achieving the necessary separation and allowing the creation of colorless and therefore more versatile products for current perfumery uses and to respond to the public's demand for increasingly authentic products.

Splitting up

Technological extrapolation of distillation, fractionation represents an increasingly widespread technique. It allows you to isolate the various fractions of an essential oil and eliminate the less pleasant parts to maintain only the noblest sections and obtain raw materials of great finesse and quality. Operations such as deterpenation (elimination of terpenes) and rectification (separation of resins) make the essences more stable and better storable.

Extraction

Extraction with volatile solvents

The process was presented for the first time at the International Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 and since then it has been applied to both dried and fresh raw materials.

In a special container, called an extractor, the natural material is repeatedly washed with a volatile solvent (for example hexane) which has a high solubilizing power and is easily eliminated by evaporation. Following pre-established times, the olfactory principle, waxes and pigments are obtained. Following repeated passages in the settling vessel, the fragrant and coloured, more or less solid ( concrete ) concentrate is finally collected on one side and the solvent which will be recovered and reused on the other.

If the raw material treated is a balm, a gum or a resin, a resinoid is obtained, which can be used in this same form by perfumers. The concretes , on the other hand, undergo another treatment, extraction with alcohol, in order to obtain a purer product, the absolute. The treated concentrate is then filtered, frozen and filtered again, to be separated from the non-soluble waxy residues, and finally concentrated under vacuum to eliminate all traces of alcohol.

Extraction via CO2 or super critical

It is a delicate extraction method as it allows the extraction of low-volatile odorous substances, such as those emanating from spices and, in general, dry raw materials. Furthermore, there are no thermal alterations of the odor, there are no traces of solvents and materials with extremely pure odors are obtained.

It is a process inspired by extraction with volatile solvents: carbon dioxide transformed into a liquid form under pressure (supercritical state) and at low temperature replaces hexane or other solvents. The obtained extract may resemble a resinoid which, by washing with alcohol, is then transformed into an absolute .