Nigella Damascena Oil

#### Nigella Damascena. Originating in the Middle East and growing wild in that area, in Turkey and in southern Europe, is the small plant **Nigella Damascena. **On account of its beauty it is also cultivated in many European countries as far north as Scandinavia. It is known as a garden plant under the name of "**Virgin in the Green**" (in Europe) or the no less romantic **"Love-in-a-Mist" **(in the United States). Erroneously called "Black Caraway" it is often confused with **Nigella Sativa **which has no perfumery value and only limited use in flavors (see next monograph). The seeds of **Nigella Damascena **are occasionally steam distilled to yield an essential oil of quite unique and interesting aromatic characteristics. Distillation takes place almost exclusively upon demand from a customer, or the customer will buy the seeds and undertake the distillation according to his specific needs. The oil is very rarely offered commercially. Oil of nigella damascena is a yellowish liquid of a peculiar and intensely sweet-fruity, nauseating and somewhat unpleasant odor when freshly distilled. After proper ageing—or after drying out on the perfume blotter—the oil shows its great tenacity, a very pleasant dryout of a peculiar winy or "brandy-like" character, reminiscent of ambrette seed oil, cognac oil, decyl propionate and certain higher esters of anthranilic acid or N-methyl anthranilic acid. The peachy or grape- like, fruity note has often been compared to that of strawberries, and the author agrees that there is a certain similarity to the odor of *wild-growing *strawberries, but not to the cultivated garden varieties. The flavor of the oil is sweet and distinctly fruity, but also "perfumery" unless the oil is diluted to a point only slightly above the **Minimum Perceptible **which is 0.02 to 0.06 mg%. The oil shows, particularly when diluted, a magnificent blue fluorescence due to a nitrogen compound, called Damascenine. Damascenine is present in the oil to the extent of about 8 or 10%. It is an alkaloid of comparatively simple structure (methyl-2-methylamino-3-methoxy benzoate).This material has been produced synthetically, but the synthetic damascenine cannot replace the essential oil of nigella damascena in perfumes and flavors. The damascenine is also held responsible for the blue fluorescence of the essential oil in solution. The material itself has a somewhat fruity, grape- like flavor, but it lacks the rich and sweet body which is found in the essential oil. Damascenine and the essential oil of nigella damascena suffer from a severe drawback as flavor materials in the fact that the most characteristic part of the flavor is lost in acid media. Grape and peach flavors are usually presented to the customers in acid media and, accordingly, there is little sense in using the oil or the alkaloid for such flavors. **Nigella Damascena Oil **can be used in perfumery, not only for lipstick perfumes where it produces interesting modifications of the conventional strawberry-peach-pineapple type of fruity perfumes, but also in many floral bases, e.g. gardenia, honeysuckle, jasmin, lilac, neroli, etc. The oil blends well with linalool, phenyl ethyl alcohol, hydroxycitronellal, benzylacetate, terpeneless petit- grain oil, ylang-ylang oil, bergamot oil, nerol, undecanolide, nonanolide, gamma-valerolactone, palatone, etc. It is a comparatively powerful and penetrating perfume material which can be used effectively at concentrations below one percent. In combinations with palatone, oxanone, etc., it may lose some effect due to the alkaline reaction of damascenine upon the very sensitive materials (palatone, oxanone, etc.).