Безсмертник

Immortelle, Croatian Helichrysum italicum, carries a maple-curry-fenugreek warmth into PREMIEREPEAU's Simili Mirage, woven against sea salt and olibanum resinoid.

Helichrysum italicum is sometimes called the curry plant because of the strong fragrance of its leaves; other common names include Italian strawflower and immortelle. It grows on dry, rocky or sandy ground around the Mediterranean. The stems are woody at the base and can reach 60 centimetres (24 in) or more in height. The clusters of yellow flowers are produced in summer and are used in dried flower arrangements. The plant has a resinous, somewhat bitter aroma reminiscent of sage or wormwood. The plant is a tender perennial. Many blenders call the absolute immortelle and the oil helichrysum. A dark amber, viscous absolute can range from a very thick pourable liquid to a solid at room temperature.

In the Mediterranean Basin the plant grows in various regions, among them Corsica, Italy and Croatia. It can be harvested wild, but is also often cultivated. Its cultivation is widely spread in Corsica, Italy, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. Crop yields vary from 8 to 20 t/ha, depending on plant spacing, irrigation and harvest time. One classification divides Helichrysum italicum into six subspecies spread across the Mediterranean, and a revised classification proposes four.

Plants introduced from France, Bosnia and Corsica and grown side by side in Bulgaria gave oils with neryl acetate (4.04-14.87%) and β-himachalene (9.9-10.99%) as main constituents. The oil profiles of the plants from the three countries differed to some extent. In plants introduced from Bosnia the predominant constituents were α-pinene, δ-cadinene, α-cadinene, β-himachalene and β-caryophyllene. The oils of plants introduced from France and Corsica had similar profiles, with neryl acetate (12.37-14.87%), β-himachalene (9.9-10.99%) and D-limonene (5.23-4.94%). In Corsican oils of subspecies italicum, neryl acetate predominated, rising from 15.8% in plants at the early-shoot stage to 42.5% in full flowering.

An oil from everlasting plants collected near Split in southern Croatia had α-pinene (12.8%), 2-methylcyclohexyl pentanoate (11.1%) and neryl acetate (10.4%) as main compounds. Seven esters were identified in that oil, representing 29.0% of the total oil. After hydrolysis of the ester fraction, the main acids liberated were acetic acid (24.3%) and propanoic acid (17.2%). In oils from stems with leaves of one- and two-year-old plants grown in Slovenia, the main compounds were α-pinene, α-eudesmol and rosifoliol.

One classification of H. italicum recognises 10 chemotypes, including a high neryl acetate chemotype (50.5-83.4%), a high α-pinene chemotype (25.2-53.5%) and an italidiones chemotype. Variation in the oil's composition could be due to numerous factors, such as geographical origin, ecological factors, the part of the plant sampled, the stage of growth and the extraction method.

This note in PREMIEREPEAU. Simili Mirage. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.