Pandanus Absolute

#### Pandanus. The **Pandanus**** ****Odoratissimus**** **is a small tropical tree, or, more correctly, a plant. It is presumably a native of the South Pacific Islands, but the exact origin is unknown. A number of varieties of **Pandanus **species are cultivated in the tropics for many and different reasons: it forms a good fence around the house and it does not grow high or shady. The leaves are useful for thatched roofs on native huts, etc. The author found many pandanus plants used as supporting trunks for vanilla vines in Réunion and Madagascar. The plant is known as the "**Screw Palm**". For the perfume industry, the flowers of pandanus odoratissimus are highly interesting and very unusual. Not only are the flowers unusually large (single flowers weighing *165** *grams are not uncommon), but they are powerfully fragrant with a very characteristic perfume. Accordingly, the creamy-white flowers have attracted the interest of the perfume industry in certain tropical areas where the plant grows abundantly and where extraction facilities are at hand. In India, particularly in the South Orissa and Ganjam districts, in Pakistan, Burma, Malaya, South Arabia and Iran, and on the Andaman islands, there are pandanus trees in quantity. A regular production of perfume oil from the flowers, however, takes place only in India. The flowers are collected exclusively from cultivated trees. A well developed pandanus plant may carry only about 25 flowers, but this means already several kilos! There are various methods of extraction in practice: An "**Attar of**** ****Kewda**" (i.e. "otto", or "essence" of pandanus) is prepared by maceration of the flowers with sesame seed (of Sesamum Indicum) or sesame oil (the fatty oil expressed from the seed). Other flowers may be used simultaneously to produce the fragrant oil which is sold as such for cosmetic purposes. Or, the flowers may be steam distilled into sandalwood oil or other perfume oils in the receiver of the still. This distillate is also called "Attar of Kewda" or **"Attar**** ****Keora"**. The flowers can be steam distilled without the addition of other essential oils and with no diluent oil in the receiver, but the extremely small yield makes it necessary to use some sort of a solvent in the receptacle in order to avoid excessive loss of oil. The oil is somewhat soluble in water. The most economic method, and the most common large-scale method today is the hydrocarbon extraction method in which a concrète is first prepared. By alcohol washing of the concrète an **Absolute of Pandanus **is obtained. The oil or the absolute is particularly interesting for the perfume chemist since the main constituent is about 75% of **Methyl-beta-Phenylethyl Ether**. It is furthermore interesting to see that the odor of kewda absolute has been described (W. A. Poucher, Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps, vol. I, page 232, fifth edition 1941) as being reminiscent of **Phenylacetaldehyde**** ****Dimethylacetal**. A chemist would probably say: "— yes, and this is exactly the starting material in the synthetic preparation of methyl-beta-phenylethyl ether!" (produced synthetically from phenylacetaldehyde dimethyl acetal by catalytic reduction with hydrogen in the presence of a nickel catalyst at 180° C.). **Pandanus**** ****Absolute**** **is a colorless liquid of intensely sharp, very powerful and diffusive, but also very sweet, hyacinth-honeylike odor. It is easier to evaluate this odor in dilutions below one percent. The powerful topnote is of very short duration, leaving only a faint, sweet-floral and fresh tone-out fragrance on a perfume blotter. The absolute blends well with styrax resinoid, cinnamic alcohol, amyl salicylate, phenylethyl phenylacetate, ar-methyl-phenylethyl alcohol, indole, heliotropine, galbanum resinoid, sage clary, bergamot, terpineol, linalool, ylang-ylang, etc. If properly fixed (and this is difficult!), the pandanus absolute can be of great interest to the perfumer in compositions such as honeysuckle, hyacinth, lily, narcissus, etc. and for experimental modifications of rose, lilac, etc. Only very small lots of **Kewda **or **Pandanus Absolute **arrive in Europe or the U.S.A., but the material is regularly produced for a hungry local perfume market in India where the fragrance is very popular. Published figures of annual treatment of 40 million flowers in the Orissa district seem exaggerated, since this amount of flowers would yield at least 2 metric tons of kewda absolute, and this amount is not available. The author estimates the production (based upon private communication with the producing areas) at about 125 to *175** *kilos per year. The absolute is priced about equal to jasmin absolute, the very small yield of pandanus absolute being responsible- for the high cost. **Pandanus**** ****Absolute**** **is not adulterated as such, but it is difficult to obtain a pure absolute or a pure distillate, free from other essential oils, vegetable oils or diluents which are conventional and accepted additives in India. The main constituent, methyl-beta-phenylethyl ether is produced synthetically, and a Swiss perfume material supply house offers an artificial kewda base. One "sniff" at a true kewda absolute will usually be sufficient to enable the perfumer, permanently, to screen pure from diluted pandanus oils.