Cassie Absolute

#### Cassie. A valuable and scarce perfume material is extracted from the flowers of **Acacia Farnesiana**, a small tree or shrub which grows in warm-temperate and semi-tropical areas all over the world. The tree is cultivated for the purpose of extracting the flowers in Lebanon (near Beyrouth), in Morocco, Egypt (near Cairo) and in the south of France. Algerian plantations and flower extraction installations are practically abandoned. Flowers are collected on a commercial scale for extraction in India (Himalaya) where a local type of pommade is made ("attar" of cassie). The tree grows abundantly in the West Indies and in the South Pacific Islands. Other species are found in Central Africa, Belgian Congo, Australia, etc. but these locations are prohibitive for an economical extraction of the flowers. Insignificant quantities of flower extracts (concrètes) are produced in Italy, Israel and Bulgaria. The flowers are extracted with petroleum ether to yield **Cassie**** ****Concrète**** **which is a solid, waxy mass of dark yellow or brown color, usually much darker than mimosa concrète. The cassie concrète is rarely used as such. It is processed further to **Cassie**** ****Absolute**** **by alcohol extraction of the concrète. The concrète yields only about one third of absolute by weight. **Cassie Absolute from Concrète **is a dark yellow or pale brown, viscous liquid, clear at room temperature but separating waxy flakes at reduced temperatures. Its odor is extremely warm, powdery-spicy, at the same time herbaceous and floral with a deep and very tenacious cinnamic-balsamic undertone. The absolute is used in high-cost perfumes where it lends a unique warmth and woody- floral note. It blends well with all the ionones and methylionones, heliotropine (not to speak of its well-known derivative, **Cassione**), anisalcohol, cyclamal, etc. and with bergamot oil, costus, mimosa, orris products, olibanum, ylang-ylang absolute, etc. in ambre bases, oriental bases, etc. **Cassie Absolute from Concrète **is occasionally used in flavors; it gives a delightful naturalness and body to a raspberry flavor when used with extreme discretion. Being a typical "bouquet" material in flavors, **Cassie**** ****Absolute**** **should be used at a concentration only slightly above the **Minimum Perceptible**, which is about 0.04 to 0.08 mg%. A different type of cassie absolute is made by the enfleurage method (see **Pommade **in Part One of this book). The alcohol-extract from the pommade is known as **Cassie Absolute from**** ****Pommade.**** **This absolute is a very viscous, dark green or olive green liquid. Its odor is distinctly different from that of the absolute from concrète. The former has a fresher, almost narcissus-or violet-leaf topnote and a much lighter bodynote. Its tenacity is by far inferior to that of the absolute from concrète. **Cassie Absolute from Pommade **is an extremely scarce perfume material and must be considered as an individual material, not a substitute for the absolute from concrète. **Cassie**** ****Absolute**** ****from**** ****Concrète**** **is produced in very limited quantities. The annual production is hardly more than 100 kilos. It is estimated that about 80% hereof is derived from Lebanon. The Egyptian producers send their concrète to France for processing into absolute. Cassie Absolute is adulterated with mimosa absolute, isoeugenol, artificial cassie bases, etc. or it can be contaminated with extracts of carob bean flowers (see **Carob Bean) **or flowers from related Leguminosae.