Osmanthus
Dried apricots, suede gloves, oolong tea left steeping too long. Osmanthus is the one flower that smells more like fruit than petal — a warm, lactonic sweetness undercut by violet-leather dryness that has no equivalent in the perfumer's organ.
Scent
Terroir & Origins
Indicative 2025 wholesale prices.
The Full Story
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method
Fresh flowers are harvested by hand in September-October and processed rapidly, as the volatiles dissipate within hours. Solvent extraction (typically hexane) of the fresh blossoms produces a concrete — a waxy, green-yellow to brown semi-solid. The concrete is then washed with ethanol to yield the absolute. Yields are extremely low and vary significantly: published estimates range from 720 kg to 3,000 kg of flowers per kilogram of absolute, depending on cultivar (O. fragrans var. aurantiacus vs. var. thunbergii), terroir, and processing efficiency. The resulting absolute is a viscous green-yellow to brown paste. Headspace capture and reconstitution from synthetic building blocks are increasingly common alternatives, offering consistent quality at lower cost.
- Formula
- Complex natural (absolute). Key constituents: (E)-linalool oxide furanoid (~20%), linalool (~15%), delta-decalactone (~11%), alpha-ionone (~6-8%), beta-ionone (~6%), gamma-decalactone, cis-jasmone, theaspirane, dihydro-beta-ionone
- CAS
- 68917-05-5
- Botanical
- Osmanthus fragrans Lour.
- Appearance
- Green-yellow to brown viscous liquid to paste
- Odour strength
- Medium
- Lasting power
- 400 hours at 100.00%
- Synonyms
- Sweet Olive, Gui Hua, Kinmokusei, Osmanthus Absolute, Golden Olive
Restricted — sensitization risk. IFRA recommends a maximum of 2.0% in the fragrance concentrate. Contains naturally occurring geraniol (~1.2%), trace eugenol, and minor coumarin (0.02%).
- Flash point
- 161.00 °F. TCC ( 71.67 °C. )
- Specific gravity
- 0.92100 to 0.98300 @ 25.00 °C.
- Refractive index
- 1.48300 to 1.49600 @ 20.00 °C.
In Perfumery
Osmanthus functions as a heart note that bridges floral, fruity, and leathery registers without fully committing to any of them. Its lactone content — delta-decalactone, gamma-decalactone — makes it a natural partner for peach, apricot, and plum accords. Its ionone content (alpha and beta) allows smooth connection to violet, iris, and orris compositions. Its leather quality links it to suede bases and animalic foundations. Usage rates are typically modest: 0.1-3% of a fragrance concentrate, constrained both by cost and by the material's intensity. Even small additions shift a composition toward fruit-leather warmth. Synthetic reconstruction is standard practice, built around beta-ionone, dihydro-beta-ionone, dihydro-beta-ionol, gamma-decalactone, linalool oxide, and theaspirane. These reconstructions approximate the scent profile at a fraction of the cost but tend to lack the textural complexity — the suede grain, the tea-leaf dryness — that the natural absolute provides. Osmanthus is particularly effective in compositions evoking East Asian tea aesthetics, autumn-oriented themes, and as a counterpoint to oud — where its fruity brightness offsets animalic density. It also is a natural bridge in chypre-adjacent structures where the fruity-leathery intersection is desired.