Flouve Oil

#### Flouve Oil. From the dried upper part of the grass, **Flouve Odorante**, harvested during or after the inflorescence, an essential oil can be produced by steam distillation under certain circumstances. Originally produced by only one company in Grasse, little is known of the details of production for this oil. It is conceivable, however, that an ordinary steam distillation is insufficient to produce an oil of appearance and composition like the **Flouve Oil. **One peculiarity of the oil is its abnormally high specific gravity. But whatever the physico-chemical properties are, this oil can offer quite unique effects in perfumes and flavors. **Flouve Oil **is a light amber colored or pale orange-yellow, viscous oil of intensely sweet, coumarinic-haylike and heavy herbaceous odor. In contrast to the absolute (see previous monograph) the oil has no mossy notes, but it has a certain fatty-rootlike undertone reminiscent of elecampane and mimosa. It is not floral, however, but it presents part of the fragrance of a meadow with flowering herbs and grasses. The flavor is also sweet: somewhat licorice-like, tobacco-like, slightly malty-herbaceous, reminiscent of beerwort, roots and sweet wood, and it is extremely powerful. The suggested use level is about 0.08 to 0.20 mg%, while the **Minimum**** ****Perceptible**** **is 0.01 to 0.03 mg%. It is even superior to **Cyclotene **(see previous monograph) in respect to threshold flavor perception. Cyclotene is probably the closest approach among the synthetic materials to the odor-flavor type of **Flouve Oil.** The oil has been used for the flavoring of a famous brand of cigarette tobacco, and it finds extensive use in the flavoring of candy, carbonated waters (root-beer types), chocolates, caramels, etc., where it acts as an intensifier and modifier of vanillin, anethole, palatone, fenugreek extracts, cyclotene, maraniol, etc. It has an outstanding masking effect to cover unpleasant flavors and odors. The oil blends well with amylsalicylate, acetanisole, anisaldehyde, cassie, lavender, lavandin, oakmoss products, linalool, sage clary, nerol, alpha-terpineol, mimosa, costus, etc. It is used in perfumery in fougères, chypres, new mown hay bases, Oriental bases, ambres, etc.—although always at a very low concentration. It often accompanies chamomile, tansy, artemisia oils, galbanum and other essential oils in trace amounts to produce "special effects", topnotes, etc. The oil is thus almost generally applicable. The annual production of **Flouve**** ****Oil **is limited to a few hundred kilos, but could possibly be increased upon demand at a fair notice. The oil is presumably composed of several items of which the distillate of the grass forms the major part. See also **Flouve**** ****Absolute**** **(previous monograph).