Re: Gardenia - More info

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

Well I am carrying on my quest about Gardenia tahitensis or 'tiare

flower' in Tahiti - also called FLORE DE CANDOLLE in the botanic

world. What a great name for a flower don't you think?

Anyway, I would like to share with you an excerpt from a study made

in 2004 by the MINISTRY OF THE PROMOTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES RURAL DEVELOPMENT

SERVICE- DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED AGRICULTURE RESEARCH

PAPEETE, TAHITI

It will help us get clearer about what we should look for in the

gardenia tahitensis ABSOLUTE... It is incredible the amount of

compounds this flower contains!!

These are only exerpts from a French document which I translated but

the whole document is about 14 pages for the whole study and I did

not want to spend time translating it all. I only took out those bits

I thought were interesting for us all.

BY Dr. L. GARNIER, Ph. D., Head of applied agricultural

research department

STUDY ON TIARE FLOWER OR GARDENIA TAHITENSIS

START OF EXCERPT

The olfactory qualities of the essential oil are superior to those of

the concretes because it reflects a more faithful scent of the fresh

flower. Unfortunately the yields in essential oils (0.8%) are much

lower than those of the concretes (3%) and their sales would make the

cost price prohibitive.

The concrete of tiare offers however a great richness in terms of

aromatic components and esters, forming a complex mixture of 80

aromatic compounds, characteristic of the perfume of the tiare

flower. Besides, the vegetal waxes contained in the concrete are used

as an excipient for the absolute and promote a better preservation of

the product which will be conditioned as such and exported without

degradation to the interested countries.

The tiare flower offers a complex and spicy bouquet with dominating

notes of honey, chocolate and cinammon as well as green and earthy

ones. Vanilline, a minor aromatic compound of tiare flower acts as a

fixative. According to (...), the product is 'interesting in terms of

olfactory background because of its floral, natural, slightly green

hyacinth caracter and moreover has a long lasting power in time'.

The natural dihydroconiferylic alcohol (DHC) and its derivatives give

it a heavy, floral vanilla scent which has a powerful intervention in

the sensory compound of the tiare concrete. The DHC esters, apart

from acetate, had never been identified yet in a natural product.

Their abundance in tiare flower constitute one of the specificities

of this essence. Because of their presence and their abundance in the

tiare concrete, they become the main originality.

Uniquely Polynesian perfumes are subject to a growing interest from

the perfume and cosmetic industry and seem to represent a great

potential for economic development: foreign and local promoters have

approached the government to create an export market of these oils.

The commercial outcome for the concrete is still at the stage of

experimentation in Tahiti. However, in economic terms, we know that

it can be compared to the jasmine of Grasse on the international

market (regarding volume and trade).

In a, the studies made on the coral soil have showed that the

seasonal differences for the concretes are weak but the olfactory

components in a are richer (50 to 100%). It is interesting to

note that for commercial reasons (volume and price), the supply of

flowers is directly made to 2 producers on the islands of Tahiti and

a.

END OF EXCERPT

I hope you like this bit. Maybe I have put my finger on the real

thing since the supplier is in a island itself....

Isabelle