White Lotus Aromatics Newsletter - Bakula
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Bakula: India's Intoxicating Garland Flower
"I was in the courtyard beneath a young bakula tree so heavy with
clusters of buds that bees swarmed thickly around its wine sweet perfume
and the fallen flowers were in such great heaps I began to amuse myself
weaving these into an intricate garland."
Bhavabhuti(8th century A. D.) Malati Mahavam
The lovely evergreen Bakula tree of the Indian subcontinent, with its
small shiny , thick, narrow, pointed leaves, straight trunk and spreading
branches is a prized ornamental specimen because it provides a dense shade
and during the months from March to July fills the night air with the delicious
heady aroma of its tiny cream colored flowers. In the morning the ethereal
flowers which so graciously scented their surroundings with their deep,
rich, honey notes during the evening hours, fall to the ground. People living
in their proximity love to collect them as they retain their odor for many
days after they fall. They are offered in temples and shrines throughout
the country. Because of their ability to hold their fragrance for many days
the flower has a special symbolic meaning when offered to the gods and goddesses.
An offering of Bakula flowers signifies the unwavering devotion of the aspirant
for the object of their devotion just as the bakul flower maintains its
wonderful perfume long after it has fallen from the tree. The flowers have
also inspired a popular saying, "true friendship lasts like the scent
of maulsari(bakul)" They are equally prized for making into tiny garlands
which can be woven into the hair emitting a perfume that is a delight to
the wearer and to those who come in their company.
Not much is known of the flower and its fragrance outside of India but
Stephen Arctander an acknowledged master of odor description sung its praises
in his classic work, Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin. "The
essential oil of Mimusops elengi is a pale yellow, mobile liquid of very
delicate, sweet and extremely tenacious floral odor, somewhat reminiscent
of orange flower and tuberose, or the more well known stephanotisits florabunda(gardenia
undertone). A honey like, heavy-sweet undertone, is quite persistent, and
this essential oil could, if it were made regularly available, certainly
find uses as a modifier of countless floral fragrances."
Sitting at my desk, I have before me two exquisite absolutes and one attar of Bakula. Other than seeing the tiny garlands woven from the fresh flowers I have had no other contact with the flower. But in these tiny vials is a world of knowledge ancient and modern. A fragrance tells a story in itself and one may explore it through a variety of means according to ones temperament. Chemists, poets, mystics, therapists, artists and a whole host of folks from other disciplines can all enter the portals of creative inspiration by inhaling the rich and intoxicating aromas of such little known flowers. It is wonderful to see that from something so tiny can come so many paths of exploration.
This past summer I found myself in the fortunate position of sponsoring the extraction of Bakula in the form of an absolute with the hopes of igniting some interest in this delicious fragrance amongst aromatic plant lovers outside India. This experience ended up providing a whole new set of insights into the problems and solutions for extraction of floral essences. Since many people ask me about concretes and absolutes, I will make an attempt to share the tiny bit that I know because before using any any aromatic product we should try to understand the steps in its creation so we can find an appropriate avenue for its use. First of all there is an ongoing debate about the safety of absolutes in therapeutic aromatherapy treatments. Such debates are well justified because it helps us to look at extraction techniques with an observant eye to see what is both good and perhaps bad about them. It is naive to think we have discovered all there is to know about distilling and extraction. Every art, craft and science is in a state of evolution with each time and place making contributions to the total knowledge of the present era.
Regarding solvent extraction of floral essences, the practice was adopted in modern times to compensate for the rising cost of labor and time which was required for the practice of enfleurage and hot fat maceration which it replaced. Both the former and latter techniques are well documented in perfumery literature so to avoid redundancy I will go to the particular problems and solutions for solvent extraction. In the current scenario there are several important criteria for the production of high quality absolutes. Pure solvent, pure alcohol, high quality raw material and dedication to the art and craft of extraction in well designed equipment. In India, one cannot easily procure pure solvents and alcohol as extractors of essences can in the West. Hexane, though proclaimed as food quality by providers of this material in India, seldom provide the pure hexane which is required for making the finest concretes from which the absolute will be prepared. Indian extractors, must by one means or another, purify the solvent first, before using exposing flowers such as Bakul to it. Even with their best efforts Indian extractors may not be able to remove traces of impurity in the solvent. Often they may appear minute amounts but one should be aware of the fact that such things occur. What impact it has on the over all quality of the oil may be negligible, but I mention this so that people seeing trace impurities in Indian absolutes may understand that such problems may be beyond the range of most extractors to fix. Also there never has been to my knowledge any ISO standard created to determine what the acceptable level of both hexane and such impurities in an absolute might be. One can easily detect a high level of hexane(a couple of percentage points) in a carelessly prepared absolute as the odor of that solvent will be well pronounced detracting from the fine floral notes of the absolute. Once the concrete is prepared and the majority of solvent removed, the aromatic waxy substance needs to be washed with a high grade alcohol. Again such a product is hard to come by in its most refined form in India. Sugar cane alcohol is the type that is used in India but without special purification it is not of the same immaculate quality that is available overseas.
There is a solution to the problem. We have been investigating it and
working on implanting it at the distillation and extraction facility of
Nishant Aromas north of Bombay. At the factory site, a number of superb
high fractionating columns are functioning which are used for producing isolates
of essential oils for the indigenous and international flavor and fragrance
industry. In a well designed fractioning column, natural isolates can be
prepared of a specified purity so these same columns prove ideal for cleaning
up impurities in the solvents and alcohol used in preparation of floral
absolutes.. In the coming months many new absolutes will be prepared using
solvent and alcohol of a high purity. Bakul(Mimusops elengi), Sontaka/White
Ginger Lily(Hedychium coranarium), Sona Champaka/Golden Champa(Michelia
champaca), Din ka Raja/Gardenia(Gardenia jasminoides), and Lotus(Nelumbo
nucifera) are a few of the new generation of absolutes on tap for extraction
using pure solvents and alcohol.
Another technique which has shown outstanding results is extracting the hexane prepared concrete with CO2. India has now begun to establish CO2 units in several localities and even the smaller 10 liter units are more than sufficient for preparing high quality extracts from concrete. The great advantage of this technique is that the less expensive solvent extraction units can continue to function in rural areas where fresh flowers are abundantly available and the concrete prepared within a few hours of picking. The concrete can then be sent to a central CO2 extracting facility(the equipment for CO2 extraction is very costly) where the lovely floral extract can be prepared. We have already initiated such a project with the extraction of a pure tuberose essence from tuberose concrete. This yields a product much more concentrated than the absolute with a delicate color and a rich full odor of tuberose. Within the CO2 units themselves are fractionating columns which allow one to remove almost all traces of hexane so those who are concerned with the possible irritating qualities of the solvent can be assured of the highest quality material. The CO2 extraction of the concrete also permits one to remove as much of the alcohol soluble waxes, pigments and other inert matter which are present in the absolute. Many people think that absolutes are pure essences but this is not true. A high grade alcohol dissolves certain waxes and other materials which are not part of the aromatic profile of the plant. These non-odiferous materials may be as much 35% in the absolute depending on the raw material. It does mean that the pure extract ends up costing several times more than the absolute but it is consequently more concentrated and can be used in greater dilution. We have adopted this method for preparing what we call contemporary attars. Here the CO2 extracted essence of the concrete is dissolved in pure sandalwood oil, the fixative par excellence, to make an ethereal floral perfume that represents the finest form in which the floral essence can exist.
This short discussion of the different extraction techniques is important because the method by which the aromatic constituents of a flower are removed greatly influences the nature of a plants therapeutic qualities. The technique may result in promoting or lessening particular constituents the sum total of which may determine its actual healing properties. This type of a scientific evaluation may be of less concern if one is only looking at the olfactory qualities of a fragrance but certainly cannot be overlooked if the oil is being looked at to treat a specific ailment. With regards to Bakul not a lot is known in the West of its healing virtues but in the East, it has played in invaluable part in ayurvedic medical treatment. Since the CO2 method is most conducive to maintaining the natural balance of already existing active healing principles in the plant we may discover that an oil or total extract prepared using this technique might have same of the same healing qualities as the flower in its natural state(only the CO2 extract would be a highly concentrated form of that)
According to ayurvedic tradition the flowers are acrid, astringent, cooling and anthelmintic(killing or ejecting intestinal worms). The flowers are used to prepare a lotion for wounds and ulcers. They are also powdered and consumed in various preparations as a brain tonic. This powder taken as a snuff is said to relieve cephaligia. The flowers possess expectorant properties and when smoked relieve asthma. In order to truly correlate the findings of modern science with ayurvedic texts one can do an investigation of published scientific literature to see what can be discovered there. Then one would need to do a thorough gc/mc analysis of the CO2 extract to discover what the actual components of the oil are.
Following are a list of articles which may aid the interested researcher in this field
PERSONAL AUTHOR:Shome,-U.; Mehrotra,-S.; Sharma,-H.P.
TITLE:Pharmacognostic studies of the flower of Mimusops elengi Linn.
SOURCE;New-Bot.New Delhi : Today & Tomorrow's Printers & Publishers.
1987. v. 14 (1/4) p. 107-120..
CALL NUMBER:DNAL QK1.N434
LANGUAGE:English
PUBLICATION TYPE:Article .
PERSONAL AUTHOR: Wong,-K.C.; Teng,-Y.E.
TITLE:Volatile components of mimusops elengi L. flowers.
SOURCE:J-essent-oil-res.Carol Stream, Ill. : Allured Publishing Corporation.
Sept/Oct 1994. v. 6 (5) p. 453-458..
CALL NUMBER:DNAL SB298.J66
LANGUAGE: English
PUBLICATION TYPE: Article
ABSTRACT: Abstract: The headspace and solvent extract of the flowers of
Mimusops elengi L. were analyzed by capillary GC and GC/MS. A total of 74
compounds were identified, of which the major chemical classes were aromatic
alcohols and esters derived from the phenylpropanoid metabolism. Headspace
analysis showed 2-phenylethanol (37.80%), methyl benzoate (13.40%), p-methylanisole
(9.94%) and 2-phenylethyl acetate (7.16%) as most abundant, whereas in the
solvent extract 2-phenylethanol (38.79%), (E)-cinnamyl alcohol (13.72%)
and 3-hydroxy-4-phenyl-2-butanone (4.74%) were dominant. .
TITLE: Natural products as insect growth regulators.
AUTHOR(S): Suryakala; Thakur
SOURCE (BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION): Indian-Journal-of-Plant-Protection.1997,
25: 2, 128-129; 6 ref..
LANGUAGE OF TEXT: English
ABSTRACTFlower extracts of Ipomoea carnea, Mimusops elengi and Premna tomentosa,
fruit extracts of Solanum farox, seed extracts of Mellitus philippines,
Parkia biglandulosa and Myristica fragrans, and root extracts of Vetiveria
zizanioides, Cocculus pendulus andLippia nodiflora were tested for their
effects on larvae of Spodoptera litura. Insects were treated topically with
50-1000 µg/ml doses to determine LD50 values. Percentage larval mortality
was highest with Parkia seed extracts (53.3%) and the percentage of larval-pupal
intermediates was highest with Ipomoea flower extracts (60.0%). Percentage
insect growth regulator activity was highest with Parkia, Ipomoea, Mellitus,
Vetiveria, Mimusops, Cocculus and Solanum (100.0, 91.11, 93.3, 84.4, 60.0,
53.3 and 52.2%, resp.). Although the pupae appeared normal, many of the
adults that emerged were abnormal. The reproductive system was normal in
adults treated with fruit and flower extracts, but abnormalities were seen
following treatment with Mellitus seed extracts.The fecundity and fertility
of the resulting normal adults was greatly reduced.
PUBLICATION TYPE:Journal-article
.
TITLE: Chemical constituents of Mimusops elengi flowers.
AUTHOR(S): Gupta-GK; Dhar-KL; Atal-CK
SOURCE (BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION):Indian-Journal-of-Chemistry,-B.1976, 14:
10, 818; 1 ref..
LANGUAGE OF TEXT: English
ABSTRACT:Extracts yielded D-mannitol, beta -sitosterol and beta -sitosterol-D-glucoside.
PUBLICATION TYPE: Journal-article
There can be no doubt that the fragrance of the flower itself is healing in that every lovely essence tends to make us aware of the finer things of life. In a moment they take us from the mundane into the sublime and help us orient ourselves to creative aspirations. Almost every human being is positively affected by truly natural fragrances. But if we need to determine specific uses for the flower and its volatile constituents we need to turn to the traditional indigenous medical literature concerning the flower and its uses and then see if modern science has done anything to collaborate those findings. A surprising amount of research has been done already and with the current interest in holistic medicine it is possible much more will be done. It may be that many extraordinary discoveries remain to be uncovered regarding the healing virtues of flowers and their fragrance resulting from a coupling of modern science with ancient medicine.
Updated: 5/26/2006
Copyright (C) 1998 by Christopher McMahon. All rights reserved.
Queries to: somanath@aol.com