Kaempferia Galanga

Note Profile

Botanical

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About

Camphor and peppery spice over cinnamic sweetness

Scent Profile

Kaempferia galanga, also called kencur, opens camphoraceous and peppery, clear and fresh, with a medicinal edge. A sweet, warm cinnamic note sits under it, softer than cinnamon bark. Some extracts show a ginger and melon-like lift at first. The dry-down turns cool, creamy and faintly spicy, with a soft floral-woody tone.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Spicy, Fresh & Citrus

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ScentArt

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can build Kaempferia Galanga from materials such as:

Ethyl cinnamate honey · balsamic · floral

Smell words come from published sources.

A given perfume with this note may use some of these, or something else.

Origin

Kaempferia galanga is kencur, also called aromatic ginger, sand ginger or lesser galangal. It is a rhizome of the ginger family from South and South-East Asia, and a different plant from ginger, greater galangal (Alpinia galanga) and the published galangal (Alpinia officinarum). The rhizome is steam-distilled or extracted with CO2. Its main odour constituents are ethyl p-methoxycinnamate and ethyl cinnamate.

Usage in Perfumery

Perfumers use it as a top-to-heart aromatic spice note. At low levels it gives an aromatic, sweet spice. At higher levels the camphor note takes over and becomes aggressive.