Fern Extract

#### Fern. **Fern**** ****Extract**** **is used very rarely, if used at all, in perfumery although the material is well known and available as a pharmaceutical drug. True fern absolutes do exist but they have been replaced by complex perfume bases ("fougères") in which oakmoss (see this monograph) and certain salicylates play a major role in respect to odor type. The foliage of certain ferns is fragrant, but the commercially available extract is produced from the rhizomes of the "male fern", **Dryopteris Filix-Mas**, also known as **Aspidium**. The most commonly available extract is an oleoresin which is used in medicines as a teniafuge. It is a poison and should only be used as part of a complex cure, as prescribed by a physician. **Oleoresin of Aspidium **is a dark green, viscous liquid which on standing deposits a crystalline substance. The oleoresin is soluble in alcohol and perfume oils and it can be used in perfume compositions if so wished. The odor of true **Fern Extract **(oleoresin of aspidium) is sweet-woody, somewhat earthy, very rich and tenacious but of comparatively poor strength (low odor yield) in perfume compositions. The inevitable solvent note is distinctly perceptible and often ruins the impression of the light, green-bark-like or cambial like notes which are so characteristic of true, freshly prepared **Fern Extract **(or fresh, broken rhizomes). The plant from which the rhizome is obtained is known widely in Europe; other varieties are found all over the world. In a few remote islands one can find "leftovers" of prehistoric fern-trees of an appearance which is presumably unchanges through millions of years. Réunion Island, now a famous perfume island, is one place where you can still find fern trees 10 to 12 metres high and with a trunk measuring up to 40 cms. in diameter. Sections of these trunks are hollowed out and made into flower-pots in which the islanders plant orchids without any soil. The orchid can extract nutrition from the coarse fibres of the pot for more than a year until the pot is literally "digested" by the orchid. In view of the fact that methyl salicylate was recommended for use in **Fougère **perfume bases many decades ago, it is interesting to note that this ester has been identified as a natural constituent of the stems of various ferns. Methyl salicylate is present as such, not glycosidically combined (in contradistinction to wintergreen and other plants). A description of the classical perfume complex which is known by the name of **Fougère**** **falls beyond the scope of this work. Some of the materials which are frequently used in Fougère perfume compositions are: amyl salicylate, bergamot oil, coumarin and coumarin derivatives, heliotropine, ionones and methyl ionones, isobornylacetate, iso cyclo citral, isoeugenol, flouve oil, geranium oil, labdanum products, lavender or lavandin oils, nitromusks and other synthetic musks, methyl salicylate (traces) or benzyl salicylate, isobutyl salicylate, etc., rose de mai absolute, rosemary oil, sandalwood oil, sage clary oil, oakmoss products, patchouli oil, vanillin and derivatives, vetiver oil, ylang-ylang oil, etc. Characteristic of the **Fougère **perfume type is it, that the basic "fougère" note is obtained by two or three items alone: Oakmoss, coumarin, amyl salicylate—or: oakmoss + amyl salicylate.