Longoza Absolute

#### Longoza Absolute from Concrète. Probably originating in Malaya and East India, the decorative plant of the Zingiberaceae (ginger family), **Hedychium Flavum, **was brought to Madagascar and the surrounding islands by early immigrants. The flowers, known under the English name of **Garland **or **Butterfly Lilies**, were used for decorations and perfuming. These names are still used by the English in India. It has been claimed that the “**False**** ****Cardamom**”, **Aframomum**** ****Angustifolium**, was also the source of longoza flowers. The author was unable to find aframomum angustifolium in Madagascar, Nossi-Bé or Réunion, but he found hedychium flavum profusely growing partly wild in all the three of these areas (1955/1956). The fruits are a delicacy of the native children. In Nossi-Bé, the tiny perfume island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, longoza flowers are treated with petroleum ether to yield a concrète which is shipped to France to be processed to an absolute. The annual production of **Longoza**** ****Concrète**** **in Nossi-Bé is about 30 to 50 kilos. Production in Réunion and on the Madagascan mainland had been abandoned at the time of the author’s last visit (1955/1956). Little is known about production in India, but according to private communications received by the author, there is no regular production of a pure **Longoza **extract in India today. A production was commenced in 1958 in Formosa where the concrète and the absolute are produced locally. Small quantities of Formosan concrète and absolute of longoza have been offered in Europe and the U.S.A. since 1959. **Longoza**** ****Concrète**** ****is**** **a chocolate-brown, waxy, almost solid mass. It yields about 50% of an alcohol-soluble absolute. **Longoza Absolute from Concrète **is a dark brown or orange-brown, very viscous liquid; at times, it can hardly be poured at room temperature. The odor is extremely rich, sweet-floral, deep-fruity-honey-like, with a peculiar spicy and vanilla-tuberose-like undertone. Its tenacity and penetrating power in perfume compositions is often underestimated. Fractions of one percent in a perfume base may change the entire performance and overall characteristics of the fragrance. The green-floral, lily-like note in the odor of longoza absolute is often enhanced unexpectedly when the absolute is used in mixed floral compositions. It blends well with orange flower absolute, jasmin, tuberose(!?), narcissus (for pronounced green-floral notes), ylang-ylang, benzyl acetate, isojasmones, cassione, isoeugenol, undecanolide, phenylethyl phenylacetate, Peru balsam oil, phenylethyl cinnamate, amyl cinnamate, veratraldehyde, linalyl cinnamate and numerous other sweet-floral, balsamic or honeylike perfume materials. **Longoza Absolute **is one of the best natural tools in the hand of the experienced perfumer who wants to duplicate the tuberose fragrance. It is amusing, however, to find in the perfumery literature certain formulas where tuberose absolute is recommended as a substitute for longoza! The present cost of longoza absolute is only a few percent of the cost of tuberose absolute (if and when this is available). In other words, longoza absolute is a relatively inexpensive flower oil (1959: about $ 85.— to $ 100.— per lb.). **Longoza**** ****Absolute**** ****from**** ****Concrète**** **can be used in flavors with a quite interesting effect and very good results. It will lend a certain naturalness and rich undertone to artificial vanilla flavors, particularly those intended for chocolate. The absolute blends excellently with vanillin, “ethyl” vanillin, anisyl alcohol, castoreum tincture, methyl anisate, etc., materials often used in artificial vanilla flavors. Its enormous power compensates for its cost and poor availability, but although “a little goes a long way” the material is far too scarce to become a current item in the “large” ice cream flavor formulas. The average use level is about 0.10 to 0.30 mg% and the **Minimum Perceptible **is 0.03 to 0.05 mg%. Unfortunately, **Longoza**** ****Absolute**** **is very often adulterated, and since only a few French houses supply this material, the true absolute suffers due to the poor impression left with customers, whose first experience with this material may be unpleasant due to their receiving a heavily adulterated longoza absolute. The oddest materials are used in this fraud: cyclamenaldehyde, amyl phenylacetate, vanillin, methyl benzoate, Peru balsam, vanilla extracts, St. John’s bread extracts, etc. etc. Only an organoleptic examination of the material will screen the true longoza from the adulterated ones. This is a case where buying the concrète as directly from the source as possible may be the only solution for a would-be consumer of this rare material. On the other hand, longoza absolute is an excellent material for adulterating other, more expensive flower absolutes, e.g. tuberose and gardenia. But here again, its poor availability puts a certain limit to large scale adulteration. **Longoza Absolute **has no substitute, and it will probably remain on the list of only a few suppliers. It would be interesting, however, to see this material become more readily available and to study the endless field of application of this outstanding perfume and flavor material.