Восковий гарбуз

АкордФРУКТИ, ОВОЧІ Й ГОРІХИфруктовий · свіжий · зелений
Ноти серцяПіраміда
3/5Сила
12годСтійкість
5Походження
Зразок
Восковий гарбуз як парфумерна сировина
Ноти серця
Benincasa hispida
Фантазійний/концептуальний
Визначення

Faint, watery, almost blank — like biting into the pale flesh of a gourd that has barely decided to taste of anything. Wintermelon in perfumery is a fantasy accord: no essential oil exists. The note is reconstructed from aldehydic and green molecules to carries a cucumber-adjacent freshness stripped of sweetness.

КВІТКОВИЙ ЗЕЛЕНИЙ СОЛОДКИЙ ФРУКТОВИЙ ТРАВ’ЯНИЙ СВІЖИЙ
white gourd, ash gourd, winter melon
Type
Акорд
Olfactive family
Фруктові
Source
Imaginative accord inspired by the mild, cooling flesh of the wax gourd (Benincasa hispida)
Інструменти
Піраміда
ВВерхні ноти
СНоти серця
ББазові ноти
3/5Сила
Середня
інтенсивність запаху
Стійкість на блотері
12годин
1 год6 год24 год3 дн.7 дн.400 год
Країни-виробники
Китай Індія Індонезія Філіппіни Таїланд

Запах

As a raw fruit: nearly odourless. Hold a slice of peeled wintermelon to the nose and the impression is cool water, a whisper of cucumber rind, and a faint starchy blankness — like smelling the inside of a clean glass. The volatile profile is dominated by green aldehydes (hexenal, hexanal) that register more as 'cut vegetation' than as 'fruit.' Compared to cantaloupe, which is rich in ethyl esters and reads as overtly sweet-fruity, wintermelon is austere, mineral, vegetal. Compared to cucumber, it is even milder — less of the sharp nonadienal bite that gives cucumber its snap.

As a perfumery accord: the reconstructed note is sheerer and more aquatic than the actual fruit. Melonal provides a melon-rind greenness; calone contributes a marine-ozonic transparency; nonanal adds a waxy, slightly floral lift. The overall effect is clean, wet, and deliberately featureless — a negative space rather than a statement. It reads closest to a diluted watermelon rind stripped of sugar.

Докладно

Wintermelon is not a perfumery ingredient. No essential oil, absolute, or CO2 extract of Benincasa hispida exists in commercial supply chains. The fruit itself is 96% water by weight, with an aroma so faint that even food scientists struggle to characterize it without concentration techniques. In perfumery, 'wintermelon' designates a fantasy accord — a synthetic reconstruction of an idea, not an extraction of a plant.

What does the actual fruit smell like? Barely anything. Wu et al. (Journal of Food Science, 1987) identified the dominant volatiles via Likens-Nickerson distillation and GC-MS as (E)-2-hexenal, n-hexanal, and n-hexyl formate — the same green, grassy C6 aldehydes found in freshly cut leaves and unripe cucumbers. A more detailed study (Food Chemistry, 2010) measured odour activity values and found the most potent odorants to be acetoin (OAV 9,522 — buttery, creamy), nonanal (OAV 24,000 — waxy, aldehydic, faintly floral), and octanal (OAV 8,571 — citrusy, green peel). The composite impression is closer to a dilute cucumber rind with a faint buttery undertone than to anything recognisably 'melon' in the perfumery sense.

The perfumery accord labelled 'wintermel on' is therefore an interpretation. It is typically constructed from melonal (2,6-dimethyl-5-heptenal, CAS 106-72-9) for a green-rind melon quality, cis-3-hexenol (leaf alcohol, CAS 928-96-1) for freshly-cut greenness, nonanal for waxy-aldehydic structure, and calone (CAS 28940-11-6) for aqueous, ozonic transparency. The result is a sheer, almost translucent green-aquatic note — lighter than watermelon, less sweet than cantaloupe, more vegetal than honeydew — used to add watery freshness in modern aquatic and green compositions.

An interesting genetic footnote: certain Southeast Asian cultivars of Benincasa hispida produce 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2-AP), the molecule responsible for the aroma of jasmine rice and pandan leaf. A deletion in the BhAMADH gene (encoding aminoaldehyde dehydrogenase) causes 2-AP to accumulate, giving these cultivars a particular 'taro-like' or pandan-like fragrance entirely absent from standard varieties. This aromatic chemotype has no current application in perfumery.

—

Related: Bitter Melon · Cucumber · Honeydew Melon · Melon · Watermelon

Отримання й хімія

Спосіб отримання

No extraction. Benincasa hispida produces no commercial essential oil, absolute, or CO2 extract for perfumery use. The fruit's aroma is too faint and too water-dominated to yield a viable aromatic extract at any practical scale. In perfumery, 'wintermelon' is a fantasy accord reconstructed entirely from synthetic aroma chemicals — principally melonal, cis-3-hexenol, nonanal, and calone — calibrated to approximate the fruit's subtle watery-green-cucurbit character. The actual volatile profile of the fresh fruit, as documented by Wu et al. (J. Food Sci., 1987) via Likens-Nickerson extraction and GC-MS, is dominated by (E)-2-hexenal, n-hexanal, and n-hexyl formate — green, grassy aldehydes typical of cucurbits. A 2010 study (Food Chemistry) identified acetoin (3-hydroxy-2-butanone, CAS 513-86-0) as the major volatile by odour activity value, contributing a buttery, creamy note not typically associated with the perfumery concept of 'wintermelon.'

Формула
N/A — reconstructed accord
CAS
N/A — no standard commercial essential oil
Ботанічна назва
Benincasa hispida
Зовнішній вигляд
N/A — fragrance accord
Сила запаху
Середня
Стійкість
6–12 hours
Синоніми
white gourd, ash gourd, winter melon
Статус IFRA
Без обмежень

No known restrictions

Фізичні властивості
Нота
Benincasa hispida. No commercial essential oil. Fresh, watery, lightly sweet accord in perfumery.

У парфумерії

Fantasy accord, not a raw material. No wintermelon essential oil, absolute, or isolate exists in commercial perfumery. The note is built from scratch using synthetic molecules that approximate the fruit's mild, watery-green character. Key construction materials: melonal (2,6-dimethyl-5-heptenal, CAS 106-72-9) for green-melon rind; cis-3-hexenol (leaf alcohol, CAS 928-96-1) for cut-green freshness; nonanal (aldehyde C-9, CAS 124-19-6) for the waxy-aldehydic backbone; and traces of calone (CAS 28940-11-6) for aqueous-ozonic lift. Some formulators add ethyl 2-methylbutyrate for a faint fruity sweetness. The resulting accord reads as a top-to-heart transitional element — lighter than watermelon, less sweet than cantaloupe, more vegetal than honeydew. Functionally, it is a transparent freshness modifier in aquatic, green, and light floral compositions. It bridges citrus top notes toward watery hearts without adding the indolic weight of white florals or the sharpness of aromatic herbs. Not linked to any current PREMIEREPEAU fragrance.

Роль у формулі
01модифікатор
02фірмова нота
03компонент піднесення
04сполучний компонент
05натуралізатор
06формувач об’єму
Форми випуску
синтетичний акорд фантазійна нота

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