GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES / fruity · herbal · warm
Davana Oil
Category
GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES
Subcategory
fruity · herbal · warm
Origin
Volatility
Top Note / Heart Note
Botanical
Artemisia pallens
Appearance
Yellow to brownish-yellow viscous liquid with rich, sweet, fruity-balsamic odor
Producing Countries
India
Pyramid
Top-Heart
Rich, fruity-balsamic with a complex, wine-like warmth. Davana oil smells like dried figs simmered in port wine — deep, sweet, with a leathery, slightly medicinal undertone.
Opens fruity and wine-like — dried fig, prune, overripe berry. A balsamic-sweet warmth develops quickly, with subtle herbal-artemisia undertones. Less clean than rose, less green than geranium, more complex than any single fruit note. The dry-down is warm, balsamic, and faintly leathery. On skin, the scent shifts and morphs — davana is a skin-reactive essential oils.
Warm, balsamic base. Persistent on skin, shifting with body chemistry.
Terroir & Transformation
Indicative 2025 wholesale prices.
The Full Story
Essential oil steam-distilled from the flowering tops of Artemisia pallens, cultivated primarily in southern India (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu). The oil is amber to dark brown, viscous, and possesses a complex scent profiles of any essential oil.
Davana's character is layered: fruity (dried fig, prune, raisin), balsamic, subtly herbaceous, and faintly medicinal. Key constituents include davanone (a sesquiterpene ketone unique to this plant, typically 40-60%), linalool, and various furanoid compounds that give the fruity-wine-like character. The oil has a remarkable property — its scent shifts on different wearers' skin due to interactions with individual body chemistry.
In perfumery, davana oil is known for natural complexity. It provides a rich, fruity-amber quality that synthetic reconstructions struggle to match. The material bridges fruity top notes and balsamic bases, functioning as both a character note and a fixative. It is particularly valued in niche perfumery for its unusual, hard-to-define character.
Davana is one of the few essential oils whose scent changes measurably on different people's skin. This happens because davanone reacts with skin enzymes and acids, producing different metabolites depending on individual skin chemistry — making it a genuinely 'personalized' ingredient.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Steam distillation of the flowering aerial parts. Yield is approximately 0.2-0.5%. Harvest occurs during full bloom in January-February. Virtually all production is in southern India, centered around Mysore. The plant is an annual — it must be replanted each season. Quality varies significantly between harvests.
Yellow to brownish-yellow viscous liquid with rich, sweet, fruity-balsamic odor
Flash Point
> 200.00 °F. TCC ( > 93.33 °C. )
Specific Gravity
0.94200 to 0.97030 @ 25.00 °C.
Refractive Index
1.47900 to 1.49100 @ 20.00 °C.
In Perfumery
Heart-to-base note in fruity-amber, chypre, and complex floral compositions. Davana oil provides naturalistic fruit-wine-balsamic depth that no synthetic can fully replicate. It works in rich ambers, fruity chypres, and complex florals where unexpected warmth and depth are desired. The davanone content gives it fixative properties. works with rose, oud, saffron, and ambery materials. Its skin-reactive quality makes it particularly suited to skin-scent compositions.
