Wan Sao Lhong

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Cool, camphoraceous Thai rhizome oil with citrus, herbal and anise-type edges

Scent Profile

Cooling_mentholic leads and is the one call with two kinds of support: the supplier's odour line starts with the word 'cool', and the GC-MS puts camphor at 17.6 percent and camphene at 8.2 percent, a quarter of the oil in camphoraceous terpenes. Aromatic_herbal takes the 'floral-herbal' half of that same odour line, and alpha-bisabolol at 16.0 percent is a soft herbal alcohol that fits it. Citrus and fresh_spice come from 'citrus' and 'anise-type' in the supplier sentence, each stated once and neither corroborated. Floral is the other half of 'floral-herbal', kept below the herbal reading because the source hyphenates the two rather than leading with the flower. Below that sit dry_woody and earthy for the rhizome and heartwood the plant is actually cut from, green, and sweet_vanillic and warm_spice each. Those five are inference from the plant part and the ginger family, not from anyone smelling the oil, and their spreads say so.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeTop · ~2h lasting

Family Fresh & Citrus, Green & Aromatic

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

Origin

Steam distilled from Amomum biflorum Jack, a ginger-family plant of Thailand known there as Wan Sao Long. The rhizome and the fragrant yellowish-white heartwood carry the oil. Yield is low, about 0.21 percent by weight. A published GC-MS analysis puts camphor at 17.6 percent, alpha-bisabolol at 16.0 percent, camphene at 8.2 percent and alpha-humulene at 5.1 percent, so a quarter of the oil is camphoraceous terpenes and a sixth is the soft herbal alcohol bisabolol.

Usage in Perfumery

A regional Thai material rather than a mainstream perfumery one. Three Fragrantica perfumes list it and no Parfumo entry does. It reads as a cool opening accent, the sort of thing that lifts a herbal or fougere structure without adding sweetness. Its camphor content puts it near rosemary, plai and galangal in role, and its bisabolol content gives it a softer landing than a straight camphor material.