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CAS No.
6790-58-5
Odour (decreasing):
Amber, Ambergris, animalic, very diffusive , excellent fixative and exalting agent
Solvent:
None added
Main Synonyms:
Ambrofix, ambrox, (-)-Ambroxide, dodecahydro-3a,6,6,9a-tetramethyl naphtho[2,1-b]furan
Manufacturer:
Kao
The same molecule as Ambrofix and Ambroxide. It is, along with Ambrinol and a couple of others, the principle odorous molecule present in the scent of natural ambergris. The scent of this material is nearly identical with that of Ambrofix but a different manufacturing process means it has a slightly more animalic character than the Givaudan product. In most applicatioins they can be freely substitued for on another.
The odour description from Kao is rather succinct: ""Typical ambergris note"" however their suggestions for application of their product reveal a bit more: ""Ambroxan gives warmth , volume and sweetness to all fragrance types even in a small amount. It also gives remarkable diffusion on top and excellent substantively on bottom.""
Description from Givaudan of their very similar product: “Ambrofix is a highly powerful, highly substantive and highly stable ambery note for use in all applications. The most suitable material for obtaining an authentic ambergris note. Produced from a natural starting material, this chiral product contains one main high impact isomer.”
The natural starting material they are talking about is Clary Sage, from which sclareol is extracted and transformed into this material.
Arcadi Boix Camps says of this molecule: ""Of all the surprising products that exist, this one perhaps incorporates the most beauty. It has been identified as one of the most noble ingredients of natural ambergris, and it imparts an outstanding, and extremely powerful, radiant note of amber. It is universally used either directly or in a form of bases that include it as the well known Fixateur""
Effective from the smallest traces, through to 2% or even more and lasts for over a month on a smelling strip. One of the most useful chemicals in modern perfumery, this molecule is incorporated into both our Ambergris Accord 1 - Authentic and Ambergris Accord 2 - White as well as our Woody Base and others.
It comes in the form of fine crystals that will dissolve in ethanol and other perfume materials. Note however that at concentrations above about 5% in ethanol or DPG it tends crystallise out at lower temperatures. Ambroxan will dissolve reliably in ethanol up to about 10% in a warm room, but it takes a lot of agitation: we don’t heat the solution (heating alcohol creates a fire risk) but we do use an automatic stirrer because it takes so long: be prepared to do a lot of shaking or stirring if you don’t have a machine to do it for you, or alternatively select from our 5% in DPG and 10% in DEP pre-disolved options.
amber, Ambergris, animalic, Aroma Chemicals, Fixatives, Ingredients for Perfumery, Molecules, radiant, Solids,
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Each entry contains a short list of scent notes with occasionally other short commentary to assist those who may not have encountered the material previously to decide whether it is of interest: I recommend you make your own assessment of each and every perfumery material you use however.
After pricing, quantity options and other basic details scroll down for narative descriptions: these are intended to assit interested readers as well as potential purchasers to assess the uses and potential of the material in question.
Many of the descriptions contain quotations from the manufacturer of the product and in addition I have quoted fairly extensively from Arctander[1] and from Arcadi Boix Camps[2] – both independent writers and both highly experienced perfumers.
There are also some quotes from Bedoukian[3] where details of the chemistry of a material are significant and from Scent & Chemistry[4] the authors of which have taken an analytical approach to the art of perfumery that is unusual and very useful. Quotations have been included from the extremely useful teaching books by Calkin & Jellinek[5] and Curtis & Williams[6] and Surburg and Panten [7] as well.
Anything not identified as a quotation is my own opinion of the material in question and it’s uses, but I am grateful to many other sources and perfumers as well as the expert authors named here. Please note that these descriptions are copyright of the author and, other than properly achnowledged fair use quoations as defined in English Law, republication in any form is not permitted.
[1] Steffen Arctander: quotations are taken from Perfume and Flavor Chemicals published in 1969 and Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin published in 1961
[2] Arcadi Boix Camps: quotations are taken from Perfumery: Techniques in Evolution, 2nd Edition published in 2009, but containing material written in 1978, 1985, and 1999 as well – where relevant the date of writing is noted with the quotations.
[3] Bedoukian: quotations are taken from Perfume and Flavoring Synthetics, 3rd, Revised Edition by Paul Z. Bedoukian, Ch.E., Ph.D. Published in 1986.
[4] Scent & Chemistry by Ohloff, Pickenhagen and Kraft, published as a book of that name in 2012, from which I have quoted, but also referencing updates on their maintained Facebook page . In addition this tag is used in the descriptions for other works involving the same authors, including:
[5] Calkin & Jellinek: quotations are taken from Perfumery: practice and principles by Robert R. Calkin, J. Stephan Jellinek, published in 1994.
[6] Curtis & Williams: quotations are taken from An Introduction to Perfumery 2nd Edition, by Tony Curtis and David G Williams, published in 2001
[7] Surburg and Panten: quotations are taken from Common Fragrance and Flavor Materials. Preparation, Properties and Uses. 5th Edition by Horst Surburg and Johannes Panten (Copyright 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim), published in 2006
A quick note about spellings: this website is primarily written in British English - it is after all written by an English Perfumer - however most of the authors mentioned here and many of the manufacturers were writing for American audiences and published using American English: where that is the case I have, as far as possible, preserved the spelling used in the source material. As a result there may be inconsistencies on any given page, but that seemed to me better than arbitrarily changing material in the process of quotation.
We’ve recently had a change of policy - and bought some new containers - so now all ingredients are sold by weight whether they are solids or liquids. Only the 10ml and 5ml sizes incorporated in kits, and a few inexpensive materials such as solvents, are still done by volume. Even the 5ml and 10ml sizes will now be filled to contain 5g or 10g regardless of whether the material is solid or liquid.
Liquids up to 10g in glass bottles (where the fill level may vary as illustrated above), 30g and 50g in HDPE Plastic.
Those materials available in 1Kg are normally supplied in aluminium flasks similar to those used for the 500g size, though we do supply a few materials in HDPE bottles as well.
Finally please note that, with some 500 different materials and so many size options we don’t hold ready-to-sell stocks: when you buy perfumery ingredients we will prepare them to order for you. This means that large orders can sometimes take a few days to prepare and also that we don’t offer refunds on ingredients, unless of course there is a fault of some kind.
