Champaca Leaf CO2
Note Profile
About
Champaca leaf CO2 is an extract of the foliage of Magnolia champaca, not of its flower. It is a woody-green material built on sesquiterpenes, with a peppery edge and only a trace of the flower's character. Three brands list it. Anyone expecting the rich vanilla-sweet floral of champaca flower CO2 is expecting the wrong material.
Scent Profile
Champaca Leaf CO2 smells of dry, woody green leaf rather than flower, built almost entirely from the wood and leaf side of the plant. A sharp, peppery spice cuts through the green, dry and aromatic rather than sweet. Only a faint trace of the rich floral character that champaca flower is known for shows through. It stays close and leafy rather than blossom-like.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
Magnolia champaca (formerly Michelia champaca) is grown for its flower, which is too fragile to distil and is therefore extracted with solvent or CO2. The leaf is a separate raw material. GC-MS across accessions found the hydrodistilled leaf oil to be pale yellow with a strong odour, 53 to 66 per cent sesquiterpene hydrocarbons led by beta-elemene, gamma-muurolene and beta-caryophyllene, plus 15 to 22 per cent sesquiterpene alcohols. A gene-expression study of the same species found the floral-scent machinery, including the (R)-linalool synthase behind the flower's signature volatiles, expressed at consistently lower levels in leaf tissue than in flower tissue.
Usage in Perfumery
A woody-green modifier, not a floral. It sits with cut foliage, pepper and light woods, and is useful where a brief wants the idea of champaca without the flower's weight and sweetness. It cannot substitute for champaca absolute or champaca flower CO2 in a composition and does not behave as a heart note.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Champaca Leaf CO2
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Champaca Leaf CO2 appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.