Seaweed Absolute

#### "Seaweed Absolute". Although rarely offered under the above name, there are several perfumery products which consist entirely or mainly of extracts of one or more species of seaweed. Very little concise information has ever been published with respect to the odorous constituents of various seaweeds. And when perfumers generally are looking for a "marine" or "seashore" type of odor, they will often turn to ambergris, nerol, geraniol, iodinecomplexes, ozone-notes, etc. However, several different extracts of seaweed are common commercial articles in the pharmaceutical industry: e. g. the extract of **Fucus Vesiculosus **(the bladder seaweed) which is a mild laxative. The brown algae **Dictyota Dichotoma **which is quite common in Scandinavian waters has, when dry, a typical "seashore" odor. In Ireland, certain seaweeds are collected along with the harvesting of **Carragheen **(Irish moss) which is itself occasionally extracted for perfumery purposes. These and other (to the author unknown) seaweeds are processed in England for a perfume manufacturer. No doubt, the typical notes of seaweed will remind the perfumer of iodine, nerol, cresol, furfural, cymene, ambergris, etc. Some of the above algae or seaweeds have been submitted to steam distillation and yielded essential oils. So-called **Seaweed**** ****Absolute**** **is often a deepgreen or greenish-brown liquid (petroleum ether extracted) of intensely green-herbaceous, phenolic-woody and "dry" odor type, distinctly recalling the odor of seaweed drying on a salt water beach after a heavy storm or surf. Obviously, the appearance and odor of these products are strongly affected by the nature of the starting material. Many different seaweeds are used. **Seaweed Absolute **is an extremely powerful perfume material. Its penetrative effect is partly due to its unusual type of odor. It finds use in mossy-woody, herbaceous, aldehydic or "green" perfume types, or in fantasy bases, etc. It blends excellently with oakmoss products, patchouli oil, spice oils, cedarwood oils and cedarwood derivatives, lavender, musks, labdanum products, castoreum, pine needle oils, galbanum resinoid or oil, geraniol, nerol, cedrela odorata oil and other dry-woody oils, cyperus oils (Cypriol in particular), etc. The annual production of **Seaweed**** ****Absolute**** **is probably less than 100 kilos, but an increased demand could easily be met.