Jasmine

Genus Jasminum

Jasmine is never distilled, because the flowers fall apart in steam. A solvent washes the scent out instead, which is why you buy an absolute rather than an essential oil. Benzyl acetate carries the sweetness, and a trace of indole adds the warm, faintly animal depth that makes jasmine smell alive rather than pretty. Pooling 44 randomised trials of essential oils for anxiety, jasmine came out near the top. Arabian jasmine gave the single largest drop in anxiety of any oil tested.^[1]

Spanish Jasmine

Jasminum grandiflorum

Also Known As: Royal Jasmine, Grandiflorum Jasmine
Family: Floral
Perfumery Note: Base
Intensity: Very Strong
Extraction: Solvent Extraction
Plant Parts: Flowers
Origins: India, Egypt, Morocco
Effect: Romance & Mood, Energy & Uplifting
Aroma: Floral, Intoxicating, Sweet
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Skincare, Perfumery & Fragrance Making
Price: $$$$Jasminum grandiflorum absolute requires dawn hand-picking of flowers that must be processed within hours; high-scale production in Grasse and Egypt provides more supply than Arabian jasmine, keeping it slightly more accessible

Spanish jasmine is the one perfumers mean when they say jasmine without qualifying it. A quarter to a third of the absolute is benzyl acetate, with indole in trace amounts doing the heavy lifting on character.^[2] Carbon dioxide extraction concentrates the same set of compounds, including jasmone and methyl anthranilate, that give it that diffusive sweetness.^[3] In tests on isolated gut muscle, the absolute relaxed contractions, working through a known cell-signalling route.^[4] That is a tissue-bath finding, not a treatment, but it fits the traditional use as a relaxant.

Arabian Jasmine

Jasminum sambac

Also Known As: Sambac Jasmine, Pikake, Mogra, Belle of India
Family: Floral
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Strong
Extraction: Solvent Extraction
Plant Parts: Flowers
Origins: India, Philippines, China, Indonesia
Effect: Energy & Uplifting, Romance & Mood
Aroma: Sweet, Intensely Floral, Warm, Indolic, Rich
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Skincare, Perfumery & Fragrance Making
Price: $$$$Jasminum sambac (sambac) absolute is produced mainly in India and Egypt in smaller volumes than grandiflorum; the more intensive harvest and limited commercial scale make it the more expensive of the two jasmine absolutes

Arabian jasmine is the heavier, more animal of the two, carrying more indole and methyl anthranilate. Its linalool roughly doubles at peak bloom, which is why picking time matters so much.^[5] The flowers are strung into garlands for temples and weddings from India to the Philippines. In a pooled analysis of 44 randomised trials, it produced the largest drop in anxiety of any essential oil tested.^[1] That is a strong result, though the individual trials behind it are small.

Essential Nose

Jasmine

Spanish Jasmine

Arabian Jasmine

References