Botanical Name: Jasminum Officinale

Origin: Egypt

Enfleurage, distillation and solvent extraction have all been used at some time. Distillation is too coarse a process for such a delicate perfume. Enfleurage, arguably the best method of extraction has largely been superseded by the more cost effective solvent extraction process.

Safety Data: Safe within the normal therapeutic guidelines. Some therapists note that they get headaches when they use Jasmine, possibly because of its benzyl acetate content. There is no reason connected with safety data why dilutions less than 3% should be used but, because of the incredible strength of the absolute, a 1% dilution is more than adequate. In itself this would reduce the risk of headache in those who are prone. Ensure good ventilation.

Did you know?

Ernest Parry [Cyclopaedia of Perfumery, 1925] gives a (perhaps apocryphal) story concerning the introduction of Jasmine into Italy which is quoted here in full.

“One of the early Dukes of Tuscany was the first owner in Italy of a [Jasmine] plant, and as he wished to retain it as a novelty, he forbade his gardener to give away any cuttings of it. The gardener, however, disobeyed his orders and gave his mistress a bunch of the flowers as a birthday offering. She was so pleased with the perfume that she struck some of the branches, and by careful cultivation produced large quantities of flowers which she sold to such advantage that she amassed a fortune and married the gardener”

Gethsemane, the garden in which Christ is supposed to have spent the last hours before his arrest, may well have been a Jasmine garden, Gethsemane being a corruption of the old name Jessamine. If true it would have been a perfect place for the profound meditations we are told took place there.