Linaloe Berry

Note Profile

Botanical

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About

Linaloe berry is the oil steam-distilled from the ripe fruit of the Mexican linaloe tree, not from its wood. It smells of a soft creamy wood with a lavender-like freshness over it and a light citrus lift. Trade sources sell it as a stand-in for rosewood, which is restricted, and place it beside lavender and bergamot mint.

Scent Profile

Linaloe berry smells of a soft, creamy wood with a lavender-like freshness over it and a light citrus lift on top. The wood reads soft rather than dry, close to rosewood, with an aromatic herbal note running alongside from the lavender and bergamot mint comparison. A faint floral quality comes through the wood as well, though the wood itself leads.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~4h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy, Green & Aromatic

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can build Linaloe Berry from materials such as:

Natural extract Linaloe berry oil (Bursera delpechiana / B. linanoe fruit oil)
Linalyl acetate pear · bergamot · citrus
Linalool citrus · woody · lily

Smell words come from published sources.

Allergens perfumes with this note can list: Linalyl Acetate, Linalool

A given perfume with this note may use some of these, or something else, and may or may not contain the allergens above.

Origin

Bursera delpechiana, Burseraceae, the Mexican linaloe tree. Acta Botanica Mexicana 91 (2010) reports that DNA sequences of the Indian B. delpechiana 'were all identical to those of B. linanoe', so the Indian plantations and the Mexican wild trees are one species. Indian producers moved to 'distilling the mature fruits instead of the wood, as it had been done in Mexico', and that split the trade into a berry grade and a wood grade of the same tree. The dominant natural constituent is linalyl acetate, not linalool: the paper states that 'linalyl acetate is known to change into linalool by thermal hydrolysis during steam distillation', so the linalool in older analyses is made by the still. The tree is also sold as Indian Lavender and Tree of Fragrance, which are marketing names for this species and not for Lavandula.

Usage in Perfumery

A linalool-type freshener for the heart, used where rosewood once was. Premiere Peau frames it as the substitute: 'Unlike rosewood oil (now severely restricted due to deforestation of Aniba rosaeodora), linaloe berry provides a comparable linalool-rich woody-floral effect from a less endangered source.' Nature In Bottle names lavender and bergamot mint as blending partners. Attested on 5 Fragrantica entries and absent from Parfumo. Fragrantica files it under Greens, herbs and fougeres.