Vetiver Resinoid

#### Vetiver "Resinoid". Due to the fact that vetiver rootlets yield almost exclusively high-boiling components on steam distillation, obviously other methods of isolating the aromatic constituents of the botanical material have been tried. By benzene extraction of the comminuted, dried rootlets and subsequent removal of the solvent under gentle vacuum, a concrète of vetiver is obtained. Because of its resinous appearance, the product is most often called **Vetiver Resinoid. **In composition, it is very closely related to the essential oil, but it seems that extraction leads to a product which contains few or no low-boiling constituents, but does contain a high amount of the components which are difficult to distil even in a modern high- pressure steam still. It is conceivable that steam distillation decomposes some of the constituents (perhaps the esters) of the natural oil to a certain degree, thereby producing an essential oil with very high acid number (this is indeed true about vetiver oils), and with a certain amount of lower boiling constituents which are usually classified as "unwanted notes" by the perfumer. Thus, the extracted concrète ("resinoid") will represent a truer picture of the natural constituents of vetiver roots. The author agrees that the mere fact of being "natural" is by no means always synonymous with "being superior in perfumery value". However, a customer will often, consciously or subconsciously, prefer a fragrance in which he recognizes natural scents or odors which are already registered in his mind from earlier experience (in nature, etc.). Extraction of vetiver rootlets is carried out experimentally in the Belgian Congo (perhaps the only "on-the-spot" production, and last reported in *1959. *The author has no report of a 1960 production, nor has he reports of the production being discontinued since the July 1960 events in Congo.). On a modest scale, extraction is undertaken in Europe and the U.S.A. from rootlets imported from India or Indonesia, rarely from Haitian rootlets. Benzene is the most common solvent used. The yield by petroleum ether extraction is much lower than that from benzene extraction, but the product is pale and attractive. Vetiver "**Resinoid**" is a semi-solid, plastic mass of dark brown or dark amber color, and faint but extremely persistent odor, reminiscent of the best grades of vetiver oil: sweet-woody, root-like, with an almost balsamic and very rich undertone. Obviously, this material has an excellent fixative effect, but it also lends a suave softness and rich body to perfumes of the heavier Oriental type, fougères, chypres, crèpe de Chines, etc. where it blends with practically all the same materials as were mentioned under vetiver oil. In certain types of rose base, vetiver "resinoid" is unsurpassed as fragrant fixative. More recently, various processed extracts of vetiver rootlets have been marketed. Anhydrol Vetiver is a molecular distillate of a vetiver extract, produced in the absence of water. During the co-distillation (with glycols or isopropyl myristate), a residue is obtained. This residue may appear on the market as "**Vetiver Resin**", and it is a good fixative, but it has little or no odor value. By-products and residues from the production of vetiverol and vetiveryl acetate (and "vetiver acetate") are also commercially available, but are erroneously named "vetiver resin". Molecular distillation of vetiver oil and other high-boiling essential oils has become more and more of a common practise. In the case of vetiver, oils with very high content of vetiverol are obtained, and the color is often straw yellow or pale amber. Being residue-free, they offer better solubility in alcohol and better miscibility with other perfume materials. A **Vetiver**** ****Absolute**** **has been prepared experimentally from the above mentioned concrète ("resinoid"), but the absolute is not a commercial or regularly available product.