Linalool
Synthetic Ingredient for Perfumery
Linalool, a floral compound with citrus undertones, is essential in flavor and fragrance compositions. Common in fruit and spice blends, it excels at low concentrations, harmonizing with aromatics.
🏭 Manufacturer — BASF
📂 CAS N° 78-70-6
⚖️ MW — 154.25 g/mol
📝 Odor Type — Fresh (some say floral)
📈 Odor Strength — poor, impacts the top note only.
👃🏼 Odor Profile — Light and refreshing, a floral woody odor with a faintly citrusy note.
👅 Flavor Profile — Linalool has a peculiar creamy, floral, but not distinctly sweet taste. The flavor picture seems to vary considerably with the concentration. Linalool is pleasant only in low concentrations and in combination with other aroma chemicals.
⚗️ Uses — It is used frequently in Blueberry imitation, Lemon, Lime, Orange, Grape and Cola compositions, in Apricot, Pineapple Date, Blackcurrant Plum, Peach, Cardamon and other fruit and spice complexes, in meat flavors and in Cocoa and Chocolate imitation. The latter application is particularly interesting since Linalool gives very pleasant effects with Vanillin. The Vanillin seems to emphasize the creamy notes of Linalool and cover the woody notes. Concentrations are about 2 to 10 ppm in candy, beverages, baked goods, etc. but it may be as high as 40 ppm in meat products. It is also used as a chemical intermediate. One common downstream product of linalool is vitamin E
WHAT IS LINALOOL?
Linalol, or linalool, Chemical name: 3,7-Dimethyl-1,6-octadien-3-ol. Over 200 species of plants produce linalool, mainly from the families Lamiaceae (mint and other herbs), Lauraceae (laurels, cinnamon, rosewood), and Rutaceae (citrus fruits), but also birch trees and other plants, from tropical to boreal climate zones, including fungi. Called Licareol (L- Linalool from Bois de Rose oil). Coriandol (d- Linalool from Coriander oil). dl-Linalool (synthetic Linalool). Linalol is a colorless liquid. Very slightly soluble in water, soluble in alcohol, Propylene glycol, and oils. Almost insoluble in Glycerin. The odor description of today would naturally be somewhat different from descriptions prior to 1957 when pure, synthetic Linalool was an uncommon item on the perfumer’s shelf. Commercial grade, synthetic Linalool does have trace impurities, and they do have an influence upon the odor of the product. However, synthetic Linalol is, after a surprisingly hard ten-year tight, completely accepted as “Linalool” by the perfumer today. Part of the explanation lies in the fact that enormous amounts of Linalool (and its Acetate) are used in the making of artificial Bergamot, Lavender, Lavandin and other essential oils of which the consumption runs into very large volume figures. Thus, the synthetic Linalool has missions other than that of replacing Bois de Rose oil (now forbidden almost)Linalool is used very extensively in perfume compositions of almost all types and price levels. Basically a floral material, and originally a Lily of the Valley (Muguet) ingredient, is now used in countless floral types, and in Oriental, Ambre, aldehydic, herbaceous and many other fragrance types. It may even form part of a Citrus fragrance or a woody complex, a Lily, Muguet, Honeysuckle, Lilac, Sweet Pea, NeroIi, Apple blossom, Frangipani, Freesia, Peony, etc. In perfumery, terms is a low boiling ingredient, and its tenacity is notoriously poor. It requires very good and skilled fixation to utilize larger amounts of Linalool in a fragrance without having the Linalool dominating the perfume. In fact, the linalool should be the ingredient that gives the lift in an overall heavy composition. Newer derivatives, particularly the higher homologies of Linalool, are excellent modifier blenders with proper mellowing effect upon the more volatile Linalool.
LINALOOL PRODUCTION
by isolation from Bois de Rose oil. The Linalool fraction may be further purified by boration. Linalool from Lavandin oil and from Bergamot oil were commercial products only 10 or 15 years ago. At that time Linalool was sold at a price almost equal to that of Bergamot oil, and adulteration of Bergamot oil with Linalool “ex Bois de Rose oil” was out of the question. A product called “Saponified Paraguay Petitgrain oil” is available from time to time. It consists mainly of linalool (from a chemical point of view).
many synthetic methods, ex: from Acetone plus Acetylene via Methylbutynol to Methylbutenol. Then reaction with Diketene and Sodium acetylide in liquid Ammonia to produce dehydrolinalool which is the key to linalool esters.
By hydration of myrcene with acetic acid is obtained a mixture of linalool and linalyl acetate. we can use the mixture as itself or it can be separated.
*Bonus: in the latest 10 yr linalool has been under scientific experimentation because scientists think that it can have a role in the neurotransmission of glutamic acid so it could affect or interfere with memory.
Sources:
National Center for Biotechnology Information (2020). PubChem Compound Summary for CID 6549, Linalool. Retrieved November 25, 2020 from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Linalool.
