ROSEWOOD OIL
(Example of Perfumer-inian Selection)

Rosewood oil - also known as: Bois de Rose

Steam distilled from the chipped wood of Aniba Rosaeodora a tropical, medium sized, wild growing evergreen from the Amazon basin.

We noticed recently that we complain a lot (well, almost as much as JPS anyway!), about the apparent declining role essential oils/natural products play in fragrance applications. Yet, we too feel justified in our harping on this issue as it seems that every day we are noticing the fall or "slow death" of another natural product in favor of a synthetic alternative in new formulations. Sometimes this is caused by price increase/tightening of supply due to natural or market conditions allowing for synthetics to take over; other times it is caused by origin or import country governmental regulations and more recently, due to ecological pressures. A perfect example encompassing all three of the "diseases" that can kill off an essential oil as a commercially applied natural is Rosewood oil. It is clearly one of the more important essential oils that has fallen victim to all of the above.

Let’s take a look at the various factors having led to the decline in usage of Rosewood oil. The first being the introduction of synthetic linalool to replace Rosewood in the cheap fragrance sector in the early 1960’s. Steffen Arctander in his important tome (or as one man used to call it "The Essential oils Bible")- "Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin" saw the writing on the wall in 1960 stating that: "Bois de Rose today is fighting for survival in strong competition with other essential oils and particularly with synthetic Linalool". For over 30 years, this essential oil has continually declined in usage from a high of approximately 500 tons being exported from several South American producing countries in the 1960’s to an estimated 100 tons total production (65 mts total exported) from the last sole producing and exporting country, Brazil.

Some statistics provided by Brazilian exporters are quite illuminating:

15 tons of wood (about 6 adult trees of 20cm diameter) are required to produce one 180kg net drum of oil. Distilleries must now, based on current governmental regulations, plant eight new trees for every one cut down. We are also told that approximately 1000 locals (Indians and Mestizos) living in the Amazon region still make their living from the production of Rosewood oil. This year, it is estimated that 780 trees will be felled to produce the current allowable 130 drums of oil. At this rate, it has been calculated that there are enough trees currently present to last the next 1000 years.

The second factor that is at present extremely important to so many of us, is of course the ecological impact of "tree cutting". Although there is at present adequate raw material to meet industry demand for many more years as seen above, the Brazilian government has made it very prohibitive even for responsible "green" distillers to continue on a long term basis. The major concern at this point for all the distillers/exporters is profitability and their raison d’etre. In 1998 the governmental branch "IBAMA"(Instituto Nacional de Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais) was formed. This brought about the introduction of licensing for distillers and within 1 year, the total number of distilleries reduced to 4. (There were over 40 twenty years ago!)

The cost of licensing for each years’ production (currently at $25,000.00 per 300 hectares) and labor costs are on the rise; ecological pressure and governmental restrictions on tree felling continue to become more stringent. Yet, the government itself provides no funding to the producers. Invariably, if this continues, prices will have to go up to cover the costs.

The first and second factors can lead to the third which can be in many cases, the final blow to an essential oil as a widely used commercially viable ingredient : VIOLENT, UNPREDICTABLE PRICE INCREASES. We have already touched on this subject in the past. Over and over again, we have seen natural products suffer an extreme situation (for example Haiti Vetivert oil - remember the Embargo??) only to have prices increase at geometric rates due to lack of availability. This is then inevitably followed by its being written out of new formulas or perhaps partially abandoned on the perfumer’s palette and worst of all - finally replaced by a synthetic.

Archeologists and Naturalists know this as Darwinism (ie -once it’s gone, it’s not coming back!), we call it "Perfumer-inian Selection:" (Ah, we finally tied the title into the story - bet you were wondering when we were going to get to that). Rarely, (although Menthol and d’Limonene seem to be two of the exceptions) do we see a natural be re-introduced on a wide commercial scale after having been largely replaced with another cheaper natural or synthetic. Sad but true.

Currently, Rosewood oil has a place in the high end ingredient roster for top-of-the-line perfumes. However, as we have seen in the past and will in the future, it is profit margins and ease of procurement that influence purchasing and ingredient choices for future creations.

Perhaps we appear to be on a quest to preserve essential oils and usage thereof. Well, you are right ! That’s how we make our living! So far, so good with Rosewood - it’s still out there and producers seem to be hanging in there despite the plethora of problems they are facing; working with government officials, paying the licensing fees, looking at plantation options and supplying the market what it demands. So far….

Addendum:

BRAZILIAN EXPORTS OF ROSEWOOD OIL:

AVERAGE NUMBER OF DRUMS PER YEAR:

1990'S   262 DRUMS PER YEAR

2000'S  0-100 DRUMS PER YEAR??

The Cookson Team