Combava Petitgrain Oil

#### Combava Petitgrain Oil. Among the numerous varieties of edible citrus fruits, many are known only in small or isolated areas where they have become not only a local variety, but also a local delicacy. A certain citrus tree in the Comoro islands northwest of Madagascar and in other nearby islands and in Madagascar itself produces large and very delicate fruits, locally known as combavas. It was not until recently that the perfumery industry became interested in this tree, **Citrus**** ****Hystrix**, varietas **Combava**. For obvious reasons the essential oil of the peel of these edible fruits of the tropics is rarely expressed or distilled. Fruits are used as part of everyday food. But when a local essential oil distillery undertook steam distillation of the leaves and twigs of this citrus variety, a new petitgrain oil was discovered: **Combava Petitgrain Oil**. The oil is distinguished by its very delicate sweetness and freshness which is distinctly different from bitter orange petitgrain or other well-known petitgrain oils. Still more interesting is it, that this oil contains laevo-**Citronellal **as one of its main constituents. It was hoped that the oil could thus become a new starting material for the production of laevo-**Citronellol **(by reduction), a perfume material sometimes called rhodinol. It is not possible at the present moment to predict the future of combava petitgrain oil, but the next decade will no doubt tell us. **Combava**** ****Petitgrain Oil **is a pale yellow to greenish yellow, mobile liquid of fresh-leafy, sweet-rosy odor, somewhat reminiscent of the odor of Guinea lemon petitgrain oil and eucalyptus citriodora oil. The flavor is, contrary to that of most other petitgrain oils, sweet and pleasant, fresh lemon-lime-like and when sufficiently diluted, it is without the perfumery note which one could expect from the known constituents of this oil. The **Minimum Perceptible **is about 0.02 to 0.05 mg%, but at a suggested use-level of 0.50 mg% there are still little or no woody-perfumery notes perceptible in the flavor. The oil could possibly find application as a freshener-modifier in citrus type flavors, etc., or in trace amounts as a bouquet material for raspberry, apple, etc. In perfumes the oil would probably be needed in larger concentration since it appears well fit for the soap and detergent type of fragrances. It could also find use as a modifier in citrus colognes and, generally, as a new topnote ingredient. The annual production of **Combava Petitgrain Oil **is still at the "upon demand" scale, but considerable quantities of botanical material is available for an increased production of the oil. The presence of **Citronellol **in certain other varieties of citrus leaf oils and peel oils is not uncommon. The essential oil from the peel of **Citrus Hystrix**, varietas torosa, contains a significant percentage of laevo-**Citronellol **although not enough to make an isolation economically attractive. This tree grows in the Philippine islands and may be the ancestor to the combava tree. Many of the utility trees and plants of the Philippines and Melanesia (ginger, lytchie, pepper, ylang-ylang, etc.) have been brought along by the immigrants to Madagascar, Nossi-Bé and the Comores. The essential oil from the peel of **Citrus Hystrix**, var. torosa, is known in the Philippines as **Colobot Oil **and it is used locally for the perfuming of cosmetic preparations, etc. The author has no personal experience with the odor of Philippine **Colobot**** ****Oil.**