Opopanax Resinoid

#### Opopanax Resinoid. In order to prepare a perfumery material from **Opopanax, **it is necessary to remove the mechanical impurities (wood splinters, sand, dust, insects, debris, etc.) and also the "gum" fraction of this natural oleo-gum-resin. Opopanax consists of approximately *5** *to 9% essential oil, 15 to 40% alcohol-soluble resins, and 50 to 80% water- soluble gum, insoluble impurities, etc. It is obvious from these figures that it makes a very significant difference in the yield of resinoid whether the starting material contains 80% gum or 50% gum. The yield of resinoid can vary from 20% up to *50%, *calculated on the crude botanical. **Opopanax Resinoid **can be prepared by extraction of the crude botanical material with benzene, petroleum ether or other hydrocarbons, occasionally with solvents such as dichloro methane (methylene dichloride) or trichloro ethylene. If ethyl alcohol is used directly, a so-called alcoholresinoid or "resin-absolute" is produced. The commercial "resin-absolute" of opopanax is not a true absolute, extracted with alcohol from a hydrocarbon-solvent-extracted resinoid (compare: **Olibanum Absolute).** It is customary, towards the end of evaporation of the material, to add a certain amount of an odorless, highboiling solvent or "plasticizer" (see **Myrrh Absolute**) such as diethyl phthalate, deodorized methyl dihydroabietate, dibutyl phthalate, benzyl benzoate (is not quite odorless), isopropyl palmitate or myristate, etc. This addition serves a practical purpose since the true, 100% resinoid of opopanax is not pourable at room temperature. It is almost hard, although slightly plastic due to the content of essential oil (approximately 10 to 20%). No essential oil should be removed from the opopanax when it is transformed into a resinoid or an absolute. Unfortunately, this unwritten law of ethics is not respected by all producers of opopanax resinoid (and other resinoids). Increasing interest in the essential oil will obviously create a surplus of oil-free resin from opopanax. In order to make the production of essential oil more economically attractive, some producers find use for the oil-free resin in products which are labelled **Opopanax Resin**. The term "resinoid" would be positively misleading in this case. **Opopanax Resinoid **is a popular fixative in high-class perfumery, if and where its dark color is no drawback. Its warm, powdery, Oriental and spicy effect is utilized in countless combination-fixatives for forest-notes, moss-notes, Oriental bases, "powder" type perfumes, spice fragrances, heavy florals, etc. **Opopanax Anhydrol **is almost colorless and offers certain parts of the opopanax odor gamut. Several other colorless molecular distillation products or decolorized extracts are available as specialties.