Tagetes Patula Oil

#### Tagetes Patula. While the European "marigold" (calendula officinalis) is used in perfumery as an absolute, the Indian variety, **Tagetes Patula**, can be steam distilled to yield an essential oil. (See also monographs on **Marigold**** **(for calendula absolute) and **Tagetes**** ****Absolute**** **(for tagetes glandulifera oil).). Various tagetes species grow wild and abundantly in India, and several species are used in the production of perfume oils. **Tagetes Patula **is a tall perennial plant with orange-colored flowers. It grows semiwild and is cultivated on a comparatively large scale in the western parts of India, particularly in the northern highlands. It should be noted at this point that the well known **Tagetes Glandulifera **and other species also grow in India. The flowers, occasionally the entire overground part of the plant (the herb), are distilled with steam to yield a yellowish-amber-colored essential oil which is mobile when freshly distilled, but soon oxidizes and resinifies and becomes very viscous when exposed to air and moisture. Old oils are viscous, dark amber or brownish colored, and lack the typical fruity topnote. Fresh oils are characterized by a very powerful fruity topnote, somewhat reminiscent of green apples. The body- notes are strongly herbaceous, somewhat sharp, like the non-floral part of the lavender fragrance. The oil finds use in certain types of herbaceous fragrances, e.g. fougère, lavender, etc., and occasionally in florals such as jasmin, gardenia, chypre, violet, etc., where the herbaceous-green notes play an important role. Modern aldehydic bases, "tabac"-bases, etc., may also benefit from trace additions of tagetes patula oil. When the flowering tops of the tagetes patula plant are distilled into a receiver which contains a solvent, e.g. sandalwood oil or liquid paraffin, a so-called "Attar Genda" is obtained. The genda attar is a well known Indian perfume material, but has attracted very little interest outside of its country of origin. It is weaker and less natural in odor than the essential oil. The absolute of **Tagetes**** ****Patula**** **is not a commercially available item, but in Europe an absolute is prepared from **Calendula**, a related plant (see this monograph). In Nigeria and France, other **Tagetes **species are extracted, see **Tagetes Absolute **(and **Tagetes Oil**). **Tagetes**** ****Patula**** **is occasionally used for the adulteration of **Saffron**** **(see this monograph) since the dried outer petals of tagetes have an appearance similar to that of true saffron. However, the latter produces a much more intense color when extracted with water.