N/A — no standard commercial essential oil; fruit and flower used in headspace capture
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
South Africa
Pyramid
Heart
Sweet-floral, jasmine-adjacent, with a faint fruity-spicy edge. The Natal plum flower — a South African shrub with unexpectedly intense white-floral fragrance.
Sweet, white-floral, with jasmine-like richness but less indolic complexity. Cleaner and lighter than jasmine sambac, less narcotic than tuberose, with a fruity-sweet edge and a faint green-spicy undertone. The night-blooming character suggests a similarity to gardenia but with less creaminess. Simple and direct.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Sweet white-floral burst, jasmine-like and clean
After a few hours
After a few hours
Softer, fruity-sweet, less intense
After a few days
After a few days
Faint sweet-floral residue
Terroir & Origins
Indicative 2025 wholesale prices.
The Full Story
Carissa (primarily Carissa macrocarpa, the Natal plum) is an evergreen shrub native to South Africa. The plant is known for its starry white flowers that produce a strong, sweet, jasmine-like fragrance, particularly intense at night. The flowers contain linalool, benzyl acetate, and various terpene alcohols.
The scent is white-floral with a jasmine-like richness, but simpler and cleaner than jasmine absolute. It lacks the indolic heaviness of Jasminum grandiflorum, reading instead as a lighter, more fruity-sweet white floral with a faint spicy-green edge. The fruit (Natal plum) is edible and mildly fragrant, but the flowers are the olfactory star.
There is no commercial carissa absolute or essential oil. The note is rare in perfumery, appearing only in niche compositions that reference South African botanicals or unusual white florals.
The Natal plum fruit is one of the few fruits from the Apocynaceae (dogbane) family that is safe to eat — most related plants are toxic. The fruit tastes like a tart cranberry-strawberry and makes excellent jams, but only fully ripe fruits should be eaten, as unripe fruits contain latex.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: No commercial essential oil or absolute from Carissa macrocarpa flowers exists. The flowers' volatile profile (linalool, benzyl acetate, terpene alcohols) has been studied academically but not exploited commercially. The note is reconstructed from standard white-floral materials.
N/A — no standard commercial essential oil; fruit and flower used in headspace capture
In Perfumery
Carissa is a conceptual white-floral note with no commercial extract. Reconstructed using linalool, benzyl acetate, jasmine-type materials at low indole levels, and fruity-sweet modifiers. Functions as a heart note in white-floral and South African botanical compositions. Its simplicity compared to jasmine or tuberose makes it useful where a clean, uncomplicated white floral is desired.
