Tamboti Wood
Note Profile
About
Tamboti is the heartwood of Spirostachys africana, a southern African tree. It smells sweet and spicy on a wood that is compared to sandalwood. The wood keeps its scent for years after cutting. No perfumery oil is made from it because the wood and latex are toxic, so the note is built as an accord.
Scent Profile
Tamboti wood is sweet and spicy on a wood that is compared to sandalwood, though with more spice than sandalwood itself. A warm spice runs through it, the thing that sets it apart from plain sandalwood. Underneath is a resinous, warm depth, smooth and balsamic. The dry timber sits below the creamy wood character, with a faint honeyed sweetness closing it.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
Spirostachys africana, family Euphorbiaceae, southern and eastern Africa. Also spelt tambotie and tambootie, and called the jumping bean tree. The scent belongs to the heartwood itself, and carvers in the region used it deliberately: tamboti beads warm against the skin and keep giving off scent for years. The latex and the wood carry irritant diterpene esters, so no essential oil or absolute is produced for perfumery. Fragrance use is a built accord, not an extract. There is no CAS number and no GC-MS sensory profile for it.
Usage in Perfumery
A base-note wood. Attested twice on Fragrantica and four times on Parfumo across three brands, so it is a rare signature rather than a workhorse. It reads as an African sandalwood with the spice turned up.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Tamboti Wood
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Tamboti Wood appears prominently.
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