GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES / green · spicy · fresh
Jambu
Category
GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES
Subcategory
green · spicy · fresh
Origin
Volatility
Heart Note
Botanical
Acmella oleracea (L.) R.K.Jansen
Appearance
Yellow to amber liquid with a pungent, tingling, herbaceous odor
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
Brazil, India, China, Southeast Asia
Pyramid
Heart
A tingling, numbing herb with a sharp green-peppery scent. Jambu smells like watercress crossed with Sichuan pepper, with the same electric buzzing sensation on the tongue.
Sharp, green-peppery with a watercress-like freshness. A tingling-electric quality from the spilanthol association. Less warm than black pepper, more vegetal, more specifically tropical-green. The numbing sensation of the plant translates into the scent as brightness and sharpness beyond what simple green notes deliver.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Sharp green-peppery, electric brightness
After a few hours
After a few hours
Vegetal watercress depth, fading tingle
After a few days
After a few days
Faint green-peppery trace
The Full Story
Jambu (Acmella oleracea), also known as paracress or toothache plant, is a tropical herb native to Brazil and used widely in Amazonian cuisine. The plant is famous for the intense tingling-numbing sensation it produces in the mouth, caused by spilanthol (an alkylamide compound).
The scent of the fresh plant is sharp, green, and peppery with a watercress-like quality. The spilanthol contributes a faint buzzing quality to the olfactory experience, similar to Sichuan pepper's numbing effect. The flowers (small, cone-shaped, yellow and red) have a slightly sweeter scent than the leaves.
In perfumery, jambu is a fantasy note providing sharp green-peppery character with a tingling-electric association. It functions in Amazonian, spicy-green, and innovative compositions. The numbing quality translates into a kind of olfactory electricity: a brightness that goes beyond conventional sharpness.
This note in Première Peau. Simili Mirage · Gravitas Capitale. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
Jambu leaves are used in the Amazonian dish tacaca, a soup made with tucupi (fermented cassava juice) and dried shrimp. The tingling-numbing effect of the leaves on the mouth is considered part of the dish's appeal. The same spilanthol is now used in cosmetic lip plumpers for its tingling, blood-flow-stimulating effect.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: The plant can be extracted or distilled but is not commercially produced for the fragrance industry. Spilanthol extracts are used in cosmetics (for their anti-wrinkle tingling effect) rather than perfumery. The note is typically a fantasy accord.
Yellow to amber liquid with a pungent, tingling, herbaceous odor
In Perfumery
Jambu is a fantasy modifier in Amazonian, spicy-green, and innovative compositions. It provides sharp green-peppery character with a particular tingling-electric quality. Built from green-peppery materials, watercress-type molecules, and sharp aromatic modifiers. The spilanthol association adds a unique sensory dimension that conventional spice notes lack.
