Pepper Leaf
Note Profile
About
Pepper leaf is the steam-distilled oil of the leaves of the black pepper vine, not the dried berry. It still smells of pepper. The one study that describes it records the odour of all three oils from the plant as pepper, and reports that the berry oil smells more terpenic than the leaf. The leaf is the heavier, drier, woodier end of the same plant: half its oil is beta-caryophyllene, and it carries no oxygenated monoterpene at all.
Scent Profile
Pepper Leaf smells of pepper, close to the berry oil but less terpenic. A dry, woody body sits underneath. A faint green, leafy note is present, though it stays light. It reads as the woody end of the pepper plant rather than the spice itself.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
Piper nigrum, Piperaceae, the same vine that yields black pepper. The organ is the leaf, steam-distilled. A comparative GC-MS study in PMC put beta-caryophyllene at 50.50 per cent of the leaf oil, about twice its share of the berry oil and more than three times its share of the stem oil, with delta-3-carene at 19.03 per cent and delta-elemene at 3.73 per cent. The same study states that sesquiterpene hydrocarbons are the major class in the leaf oil and that no oxygenated monoterpene was found in it.
Usage in Perfumery
No commercial supplier of a dedicated pepper leaf oil or absolute was found. Attested on 9 Parfumo entries across 6 brands and on no Fragrantica entry, so the term reaches perfumery as a listed note rather than as a bottle a perfumer buys.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Pepper Leaf
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Pepper Leaf appears prominently.
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