Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin by Steffen Arctander is a one in a million publication.

The book sits at my side on my bench as I blend. I refer to it everyday. It was originally published in 1961. Steffen Arctander began collecting natural aromatic materials and compiling notes on the production and origin of these materials. As well as the materials he brought back from his travels, he was sent samples from suppliers the world over. By 1958 he had an almost complete collection of perfume and flavor materials of natural origin.

As a natural perfumer I make perfumes from natural essences only. Natural essences are complex and each one is unique. In fact different bottles of essence from the same type of plant are unique, depending on the supplier, the year of harvest and the method of production. Some of the materials I use are very expensive. I need to be 100% certain of the quality and purity of my essences. How would I know what Gardenia oil smelled like if I had never smelled it? How would I know what it looks like or how much I should expect to pay for it?

Steffen Arctanders book Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin is the paramount reference tool. In fact very recently I purchased some gardenia absolute from a supplier in England and I was immediately suspect of it. It smelled entirely synthetic. Arctander describes the smell of gardenia absolute as being: "rich, floral, with a peculiar sweet-green note." That didn't fit with what I was smelling. Then I read more about gardenia absolute. According to Steffen Arctander the yield is very small, "about 1 kilo of absolute from 5000 kilos of flowers". Because the oil I purchased was very cheap, I was certain at that point that it was a fake. I was able to make the choice then not to use it in my perfumes. Often suppliers will argue with you about the quality of an oil, I sent the gardenia to be tested to confirm my suspicions.

Steffen Arctander saved me a lot of time, energy and almost certainly my reputation had I mistakenly used the oil in a product marketed as entirely natural. Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin is by far the most important book in my collection and I would not be without it. It is available from Allured Bookstore.

For a limited time all Natures Nexus Members are entitled to a 10% discount on any book from the Allured Bookstore, please email the editor for details of the discount.

The first part of Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin is the definitions of and methods of processing materials.

The second part of the book consists of near enough 1000 individual entries (too many to count). Each entry has information about what the material smells like, what the material looks like, where it comes from, how it is normally extracted, and other very valuable information. There are entries for materials like carnation, seaweed absolute, Violet Flower Absolute and materials I have never heard of, like Nyctanthes Abortristis and Manevoro Oil.

Near the end of the book there are tables. These tables contain very valuable information for the perfumer. One in particular is the Grouping table. In this table, natural materials are arranged according to their odor type and suggested use. For example it has the 'thyme group', and 'phenolic leather group', and 'rose group'. There are 88 different groups. I love it because when I am blending and I want to make a certain 'type' of fragrance, for example 'woody', I can look up the groups section and see listings for 'warm woody', 'sweet woody' ,'dry woody' and so on.

The images in the book are black and white photographs taken by the author while on his travels. There's one I love, taken in Madagascar, of two workers inspecting vanilla fruits before they are shipped. There's another of a worker at a large production plant where jasmine is extracted. Jasmine is one of the most expensive materials, it is such a contrast to see the worker standing at the forefront of the photo wearing an old jacket held closed with a safety pin.

In the preface of the book it says that "All odor and flavor experiments were carried out by the author personally" and "It is the author's hope that the present work may contribute to the wider and further expanded knowledge of perfume and flavor materials from nature."Steffen Arctander has created a work which will be used as a reference tool by perfumers and flavorists around the world for many years to come . In my opinion nothing even comes close to to the usefulness of this book to those in the industry.