Coumarin-rich South American timber that smells like tonka bean carved into a plank. Amburana wood is vanilla-almond sweetness fused with a warm, slightly spicy woodiness.
Tonka bean and warm wood fused together — vanilla-almond sweetness with a genuine timber backbone. Less powdery than pure coumarin, less creamy than sandalwood, more specifically 'wood' than tonka bean absolute. A faint spiciness (cinnamon-adjacent) distinguishes it from other coumarin-rich materials. The dry-down is warm, sweet, and persistently woody — like sniffing the inside of an amburana cachaca barrel.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Sweet-woody warmth — vanillic, almond-like, with immediate coumarin tonka-bean character
After a few hours
After a few hours
Woody structure emerges beneath the sweetness — warm timber, slightly spicy, less purely sweet
Amburana wood (Amburana cearensis) is a South American timber that smells like it was grown to be a perfume ingredient. The heartwood is naturally saturated with coumarin — the same lactone that defines tonka bean, hay, and sweet clover — giving it a vanilla-almond sweetness that is unusual for a structural wood. Cut or shave the surface and the scent rises immediately: warm, vanillic, faintly spicy, unmistakably coumarin.
The tree grows in the semi-arid caatinga biome of northeastern Brazil, extending into Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru. It is used locally for furniture, cooperage, and traditional medicine. In recent years, Brazilian niche perfumers have adopted it as a terroir signature — a specifically South American material that provides sweet-woody character with a sense of place.
In perfumery, amburana functions as a base-note modifier that bridges the gap between sweet accords (tonka, vanilla, benzoin) and woody structures (sandalwood, cedarwood). It is sweeter and more vanillic than most woods, but more structurally 'woody' than tonka or coumarin alone. The tincture (wood chips macerated in ethanol) is the most common perfumery format, though CO2 extractions are beginning to appear.
Amburana cearensis wood is used to age cachaca (Brazilian sugarcane spirit) in the same way oak is used for whiskey. The coumarin in the wood imparts a particular vanilla-cinnamon flavor to the spirit. Some premium cachaca producers age their product in amburana barrels for up to 15 years, creating a spirit that smells notably like liquid tonka bean.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Tincture (maceration of wood chips or shavings in ethanol) or CO2 extraction. No commercial essential oil is widely available. The wood and seeds of Amburana cearensis are naturally rich in coumarin, giving them a scent resembling vanilla and tonka bean. The tree is native to semi-arid regions of northeastern Brazil (caatinga biome), extending to Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Argentina. The timber is prized for furniture and cooperage.
Key component: Coumarin C₉H₆O₂ (CAS 91-64-5), also isokaurane diterpenes
CAS Number
N/A (no standardized CAS for the essential oil)
Botanical Name
Amburana cearensis
IFRA Status
No known restrictions
Synonyms
AMBURANA · CUMARU · CEREJEIRA · IMBURANA
Physical Properties
Odor Strength
Medium
Appearance
Pale yellow to amber viscous liquid
In Perfumery
Amburana wood (Amburana cearensis, also called cumaru or cerejeira) is a Brazilian timber whose coumarin-rich chemistry gives it an olfactory profile straddling tonka bean and sandalwood. It functions as a base-note modifier in amber, woody-gourmand, and ambery compositions, providing a sweet-woody character that is more structurally 'wood' than tonka bean but sweeter and more vanillic than most timber notes. The coumarin content links it directly to the tonka-hay-tobacco family of materials. Combined with actual tonka absolute, it creates a layered coumarin effect with more woody authenticity. With sandalwood, it bridges creamy-woody to sweet-vanillic. In Brazilian and South American niche perfumery, amburana is increasingly used as a signature terroir ingredient. The wood can be tinctured or used as an ingredient in specialty bases.
