GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES / green · fresh · spicy
Chuan Xiong
Category
GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES
Subcategory
green · fresh · spicy
Origin
Volatility
Heart Note
Botanical
Ligusticum chuanxiong
Appearance
Pale yellow to amber liquid
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
China
Pyramid
Heart
Sharp, warm, herbaceous-celery with a distinctly medicinal edge. Chuan xiong smells like a Chinese herbal pharmacy drawer pulled open -- aromatic, pungent, slightly musty, complex.
Warm, herbal-celery, medicinal, with a particular phthalide lactone character. More complex and warmer than lovage, less anisic than angelic a, with a specifically Chinese herbal-pharmacy quality. The ligustilide provides a sweet-warm depth underneath the sharp herbal top. Pungent but not aggressive -- aromatic rather than acrid.
Chuan xiong (Ligusticum chuanxiong, syn. L. wallichii) is a perennial herb in the Apiaceae family, cultivated primarily in Sichuan province. Its dried rhizome is a important herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), used for over 2,000 years primarily for blood-moving and pain-relieving applications.
The essential oil, steam-distilled from the dried rhizome, is dominated by ligustilide (a phthalide lactone with a warm, celery-like, slightly sweet character), butylidene phthalide, and senkyunolide. These phthalides give chuan xiong its particular warm, herbal-celery-medicinal profile, quite different from European Apiaceae like lovage or angelic a.
In perfumery, chuan xiong is a niche ingredient providing a specifically Chinese herbal-medicinal character. It functions in the heart zone as an aromatic modifier. The ligustilide-dominant profile is warm, complex, and irreplaceable by Western herbs. The note works in TCM-inspired, contemplative, and East Asian-themed compositions.
This note in Première Peau. Simili Mirage · Gravitas Capitale. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
Chuan xiong's primary active compound, ligustilide, is chemically unstable and readily dimerises when exposed to light and air. This means the smell of aged chuan xiong rhizome is measurably different from fresh -- the aromatic profile shifts over months of storage as ligustilide slowly transforms.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Steam distillation of dried rhizomes of Ligusticum chuanxiong. Oil yield is approximately 1-2%. The oil is yellow to brownish with a strong, warm, herbaceous-celery odour. Major production in Sichuan, China.
Chuan xiong (Ligusticum chuanxiong) oil is a niche aromatic heart-note modifier providing specifically Chinese herbal-medicinal character. Its phthalide lactone profile (ligustilide, butylidene phthalide, senkyunolide) is warm, celery-like, and irreplaceable by Western herbs. Works in TCM-inspired, contemplative, and East Asian-themed compositions alongside camphor, borneol, and incense accords.
