PERFUME MIXTURES

The mixing of natural and synthetic perfumery compounds in order to produce a pleasing odour is a subject of extreme complexity. Its an art which is based on wide experience in the olfactory relationship of the constituent substances both qualitative and quantitative relationships and on informed personal taste. Its to a certain extent, a matter of intuition to obtain that perfect harmony among the odorous components which remains unchanged during evaporation of the perfume mixture. To ma e a specific perfume mixture , the familiarity with the odours of flowers , essential oils and other natural perfumery materials and of synthetic perfumes and isolates , as well as nowledge of their composition , is very essential. The idea of composing really fine and pleasing perfume mixtures exclusively form isolates and synthetic chemicals has always failed. The beauty of an odour complex cannot be achieved without perfumery materials. !s an example" high class eau-de-colognes mixtures cannot be produced by mixing synthetic perfumery chemicals alone and it is necessary to use natural lemon, rosemary, bergamot, lavender, orange and orange flower oils.

AGEING
#erfume mixtures change on $maturing the mellowing down with time of initial sharp, harsh or otherwise undesirable odours resulting off and improvement of the perfume composition. In this process, chemical changes ta e place, until a state of equilibrium is attained and odour complex remains balanced and stable. #erfume compositions containing aldehydes are especially subject to changes in the presence of alcohols due to acelil formation. !t the same time, an excess of aliphatic aldehydes containing % &' carbon atoms should be avoided in perfume mixtures because of the sharp and objectionable fatty odours of carboxylic acids formed there from by oxidation. (ethyl anthranilate is a widely used ingredient in floral and fanny perfume mixtures and is responsible for changes on storage. The amino group of the methyl anthranilate reacts o form condensation product with carbonyl containing constituents of the perfume mixture. These reaction products usually possess a pleasing and stable odour that combines the olfactory effects of both the aldehyde and the ester. The small amount of free carboxylic acids often present in essential oils and aldehyde causes changes in perfume composition on storage in the presence of alcohols due to the slow formation of esters. These esters have a different and usually more pleasant odour than the acid components and sometimes improve the odour complex.

FIXATION OF PERFUMES
The inclusion of so called fixatives in a perfume mixture serves the general purpose of diminishing the more volatile components and rendering the odour more permanent. )or this purpose

the addition of alcoholic tinctures of mus , civet and ambergris is usually satisfactory especially in the case of alcoholic hand erchief perfumes. These are generally prepared as *+ infusions and matured for several months. ,aturally occurring substances used as fixatives are generally of animal origin and they in addition to the fixative effect cause an exalting as $life effect in perfumes, especially after the alcoholic solution of the perfume mixture and fixative has been allowed to mature. -ut the high cost of these materials of animal origin has stimulated prolonged investigations to determine their chemical nature in order to affect synthesis of the active principles. The exact role of fixatives in perfume mixture still remains un nown. The synthetic nitro mus s .xylene, etone, ambrette and so on/ represent a genuine group of fixatives. Their evaporation rate is very slow and they preserve the odour complex very well, especially in tablet soups, although their odour has no $exalting properties. The idea that the fixation of perfumes odours is due to the high boiling point and slow evaporation rate of the fixatives, has led to the discovery of odourless or almost odourless bodies for which high fixative power in perfume mixtures is claimed, e.g. certain esters of adipic acid, cyclohexyl cylohexanol and its methyl homologous, glycerol monoctidecyl and monooctyl ethers and similar substances. 0ertain lactones such as coumarin and n heptylbutyrolactone, not only possess a pleasant and powerful odour but also display fixative properties. In search of other lactones as fixative agents, macro cyclic lactones are discovered, which can be performed by the depolymerisation of liner polymers under reduced pressure at ''1 2 *334 0 in presence of suitable catalysts. 5ome of the lactones produced in this way are stated to possess a pleasant mus odour at ? dilutions. The fixative power of jasmine absolute and patchouli oil may be due to certain macro cyclic lactones or similar compounds not yet discovered in theses essential oils.

RECTIFICATION AND FRACTIONATION OF ESSENTIAL OILS

(any essential oils , when distilled form plant material , are contaminated with volatile products from the decomposition of complex plant substances , under the influence of hot water or steam. In addition to that, essential oils also contain substances of objectionable odour and also some non volatile 6 viscous residue li e paraffin, waxes, oxygenated compounds etc. In order to improve the odour of such oils, they must be freed form these undesirable compounds by redistillation. This applies also to oils possessing too dar in a colour. This process gives a pure oil with more solubility, more stability and much strong in odour. )or the redistillation of essential oils two general methods are employed vi7. rectification and fractionation.

1. Rectification : 8ectification aims at the separation of volatile and non volatile compounds if a lighter colour oil is desired. The colouring matter remains as residue in the still. This may be achieved by dry distillation in vacuum or by hydro distillation. If absolute colourless and pure essential oil is desired, the rectification should be done v*ery slowly. !nother process of rectification of essential oils is extraction of more soluble oxygenated compounds by alcohol. Terpenes are sparingly soluble in alcohol while paraffins and sesquiterpenes practically insoluble. The oxygenated compound s on the other hand possess, in general, much better solubility. ,atural oils are often extracted by the solvents which are only partially soluble in one another, e.g. pentane and dimethyl alcohol. The two solvents are made to flow counter currently, and oils is entered in the middle. The terpenes dissolve in the pentane phase, the oxygenated compounds in the alcohol. !fter separation of the phases, solvents are removed by distillation only low temperature being necessary. 2. F actionation: 5eparation of volatile oils into various fractions according to their boiling points and odour. In most cases this is achieved by dry distillation in vacuum. ! volatile oil should never be fractionated at atmospheric pressure, because the high temperatures.9/ involved causes decomposition and resinification, the distillate then possesses an odour 6 physicochemical properties quite different from those of the original oil. The boiling temperature can be considerably lowered by distilling the volatile oil at greatly reduced pressure, the process is also referred as dry distillation in vacuum.