Violet Leaf Absolute

Latin name :

Viola odorata

Botanical profile :

The fragrant violet is a plant of the Violaceae family, and of the genus Viola.

Geographic origin :

Originally from Asia Minor, violet leaf is now grown on large areas of land, particularly in France, Italy, Egypt and some Asian countries.

Chemotypes :

The violet odorata includes two major varieties:
The violet of Parma, the most used in perfumery.
The violet Victoria, called ''Luxanne ''.

Extraction process :

Cultivation of the violet leaves requires very fertile and fairly well drained soil. In Egypt, for example, cultivation is practiced on the Nile Delta, one of the most fertile regions in the world. Moreover, a warm climate is favorable to the plant growth. The leaf harvest is made from May to December and the leaves are cut by hand or with a sickle. An hectare of cultivation allows to cultivate 10 tons of leaves per cut (the number of cuts each year varies from 1 to 4 according to the place of harvest). The leaves are gathered in large bags and taken to the extraction plant.
The fresh leaves are placed into the extractor immediately or after a day, and extracted with a first volatile solvent such as hexane, to obtain the violet leaf concrete, in the form of a dark green paste, after evaporation of the solvent. To obtain the concrete, two extractions with hexane of two hours each, are necessary.
The extraction yield for the concrete is about 0.09%. Once the concrete with hexane is obtained, it is diluted in alcohol to precipitate the waxes by glazing at 32 °F. The absolute is obtained after filtration and evaporation of the alcohol. Sometimes, the violet leaf extraction result is subject to a distillation to be bleached, without a great olfactory impact.

Major Components :

Linolenic Acid (≈2%)
Linoleic Acid (≈1%)
trans-2-cis-6-Nonadienal (≈1%)
3-Octenol (≈0,5%)
cis-3-Hexenyl Acetate (≈0,5%)