GALBANUM, GREEN NOTES, AND FERULA RELATIVES

When writing about the Cymbopogons last week, I should have mentioned my old post on Cymbopogon validus, aka African bluegrass, yet another one of the grasses that yield perfumery materials. It’s an excellent material that is hardly ever used, but it’s in a few of my perfume formulas, especially the Devil Scent series. The oil gets better with age, as I found out after getting a new batch that smelled “raw”.  It needs to sit for a year or more to mellow, so I’ll always have one bottle to use and one to age. 

I thought about where to go from the Cymbopogons, and decided to stick with the “green” theme until I exhaust it.

One natural material that’s always thought of as “green” is galbanum, although I think that reputation comes from the fact that it is often combined with other “green” materials, as in the famous Balmain Vent Vert, which dates back to the mid 1940s.  Incidentally, I just obtained a vintage Vent Vert mini from the 1950s or early 60s, and it smells absolutely amazing, nothing like the current version.

Galbanum comes from a plant that looks like a giant fennel plant, Ferula galbaniflua  (also called Ferula gummosa), native to Iran and other parts of the Middle East. The galbanum essential oil I have comes from Turkey. The essential oil is distilled from a resin exuded from cracks in the mature stems of the plant. For many thousands of years galbanum has been burned as incense, so it has a long history of use in scent-making. To me, galbanum essential oil smells more bitter-resinous than green, so it’s useful for giving scents a bitter-woody, almost mineral-like note that lasts pretty much throughout. I have heard the scent of galbanum described as being like old cigarette ashes, and I can sort of see their point, but it’s cleaner. It would be a good addition to any perfume that aimed to recreate a landscape with semi-dry grass, bark, and stones. I don’t know why I don’t use it more because, wearing pure galbanum oil, I really like it.

Ferula asafoetida is a relative of galbanum, but with a different scent entirely, made from the sap exuded by the root of the plant, which also looks like a giant version of fennel. The smell of the resin is completely unique, and is used mainly in Indian cuisine, where it is known as “hing”, and in Ayurvedic medicine for a variety of purposes. I like to use hing in cooking, partly because I like the flavor and partly because it enhances the effect of other spices. There is an essential oil of asafetida, but its use in perfume is extremely limited. I tried to use it in one perfume, in extremely diluted form, but no matter how little I added it ended up hijacking the fragrance and I gave up. I may give it another go at some point, but for now the oil is sequestered in a double plastic bag to prevent it spreading to other things.

Do you like galbanum as a perfume note and, if so, what is your favorite scent that contains galbanum?

A PERFUMER’S WALKABOUT

School has started again, so mornings are all spent inside. However, one of the activities that I usually do with my freshman class is a campus walkabout to look at public art, architecture, design, and other fun things. Yesterday afternoon I took a walkabout myself to make sure that I have a good route planned out, little thinking that it would yield a treasure trove of perfume-related plants.

The first and biggest surprise came when I was walking down a path and suddenly smelled a familiar, woody, resinous scent. I looked all around, but wasn’t able to localize it. I shrugged it off thinking it was just my imagination, or else there was a bit of labdanum clinging to my clothing somewhere and being activated by the sun. I went on, but a little further down the path I smelled it again. This time there was only one kind of bush in the vicinity and, when I touched it, it was sticky! Really sticky, especially the new stems. After touching the bush, my hands smelled exactly like the labdanum absolute that I use. I’d found Cistus ladanifer growing right on campus in huge profusion. The bushes are bigger than I’d imagined them being, as tall or taller than I am, with thick woody trunks. If you don’t work with labdanum, it’s probably hard to imagine the thrill of finding these legendary plants growing in your very own neighborhood with the resin oozing out, right there for you to touch and sniff. 

There were two varieties of Cistus, one the “real thing” and another with wider leaves, less resin, and a woodier scent. I took a small cutting of each that I’ll try to root, but will also look for a larger ladanifer plant at one of the local nurseries.

The next surprises came when I checked out the medicinal herb garden. The most surprising thing I found was a huge asafoetida plant, Ferula asafoetida, which is the source of the Indian spice, hing. Live, it resembles a huge Angelica plant with the typical dill-anise-angelica type seed heads. I was surprised to find that the leaves had a strong, fresh, herbal scent rather than the typical garlic-onion odor of the spice, which is made from the resin exuded from the roots.  Now I want to grow an asafoetida plant and tincture the leaves. I took a seed head, and will be raising little asafoetida plants in the greenhouse this winter for garden planting in the spring.

Another plant that I was pleased to find was immortelle, Helichrysum italicum, commonly known as curry plant. The leaves really do smell like curry, but also have a hint of the sweet, maple-syrup scent of immortelle absolute. I took some immoretelle seeds, too, which look like clusters of little dandelion seed puffs.

The final surprise was finding a big hedge of tea bushes, Camellia sinensis. I had no idea that we could grow tea in the Pacific Northwest, but evidently so. The plants look like regular camellia bushes with medium small leaves. Interesting. This one is going into my garden, too, along with the others, initially as a cutting that I’ll try to root and, with luck, a bigger plant from a nursery. Imagine harvesting and making your own tea!

[As usual, I didn't have my camera or phone with me, so the photos of the Cistus Helichrysum and Camellia sinensis flowers are from Wikimedia, as is the botanical illustration of the asafoetida plant. The cuttings laid out on the kitchen counter are my photo]