FRAGRANCES AND FLAVOURS

YOU TASTE A FLAVOUR AND YOU SMELL A FRAGRANCE

Definition:
Strongly smelling organic compounds which are used in perfumes and perfumed products
(toiletries, creams, etc.) as well as for the flavouring of different foods and beverages.
Fragrances and flavours are chemical messengers, their receptors are the olfactory cells
in the nose. They are the two senses which we sense with our nose and tongue.
It is important to note that the tongue (i.e. the sense of taste), only detects sweet, salt,
sour, bitter and umami (savory, or monosodium glutamate taste). The rest of taste is, in
fact, smell. The volatile flavour ingredients are vaporized in the mouth and reach the nose
through the airways behind the roof of the mouth.

FLAVOURS
Distinctive taste
Felt by tongue
Usually used to describe foods
Can be influenced by the fragrance
Intentionally added to food and feeding
stuff, primary purpose to impart flavour
Added in small amounts to food or feeding
stuff but are not intended to be consumed
as such.
FRAGRANCE
Sweet & pleasant smell
Felt by nose
Often used to describe floral scents
Not influenced by the flavor
Intentionally added to products to impart
smell
Added in small amount to increase the
consumer appeal, not intended to be
consumed as such

However, flavours and frangrances cannot be considered as separate entities since the
flavor is often a result of both taste and smell. Thus fragrance has major influence on the
flavor.
There are three factors that influence flavor perception
1. All aspects related to solely food. E.g. type of aroma active compounds present
and its interaction with the food the matrix.
2. All aspects that are related to the in-mouth situation. This makes the person eating
the food an integral part of the system being analyzed, and takes account of
interactions between food and consumer
3. Psychosocial aspects.
There are three different categories of flavouring substances

TYPE DESCRIPTION
Natural Substances which are extracted from vegetable or
animal materials and are not further chemically
modified or changed. An example is vanilla extract.
Nature identical Substances that are chemically identical to natural
substances, but which are obtained by chemical
processes or by chemical modification of other
natural substances. An example is vanillin, which is
identical to the vanillin in vanilla, but not
obtained from vanilla pods.
Artificial Substances obtained by chemical synthesis or
chemical modification of natural substances, but
which are not present in natural products.
Problems of Using Natural Flavors

• Many natural flavor have low intensity, and hence it is used at a high dosage
which results in an unsatisfactory texture and poor stability.
• Concentration of natural flavors is usually accompanied by significant changes in
the flavor profile.
• Natural flavors exhibit variations in strength and quality.
• The supply of natural materials is becoming uncertain.
• Most natural flavors are unstable and undergo changes during postharvest
handling, processing or storage.
• Many natural products contain enzyme systems which may result in the
formation of off-notes.
• The toxicity of many natural products has yet to be established.

Disadvantage using Imitation Flavors

• Original natural flavor more subtle, imitation flavor maybe described as

“chemical”
• Difficulties in “labeling”
• Many natural flavors have a built in reservoir of flavor precursors which can result
in the generation of additional flavor, imitation flavors are not.
• Imitation flavor generally require the use of either a solvent or a carrier
• Restriction by legislation
• Problems with texture in the end product

Advantage of Imitation Flavor

• Cheaper than natural flavor

• Stable
• Can be designed to withstand severe processing condition
 • Can be produced in a variety of forms (e.g., alcohol- based, oil-based, or
encapsulated powders )
• Generally readily available
• Consistency of quality

NATURAL FRGRANCES AND FLAVOURS:

BIOSYNTHESIS:
All living organisms produce different chemicals through a process known as
BIOSYNTHESIS. These materials can be classified into two major groups, PRIMARY
METABOLITES & SECONDRY METABOLITES.
Primary metabolites are those that are common to all species and these can be
subdivided into proteins, carbohydrates, lipids (fatty oils) and nucleic acids. The materials
used as fragrances and flavours are mostly secondary metabolites. The four categories
of secondary metabolites, in decreasing order of importance as sources of perfume
ingredients, are: terpenoids, shikimic acid derivatives, polyketides and alkaloids.

Shikimic Acid C7H10O5

Terpenes (C5H10)n,
Polyketides large group of secondary metabolites which either contain alternating
carbonyl and methylene groups (-CO-CH2-), or are derived from precursors which
contain such alternating groups.

ESSENTIAL OILS:
What Is an Essential Oil?

Essential oil, also defined as essence, volatile oil, etheric oil, is a complex mixture of
volatile constituents bio synthesized by living organisms. Essential oils can be liberated
from their matrix by water, steam and dry distillation, or expression in the case of citrus
fruits. Organisms produce essential oils for
1. Defense, as defensive substances against herbivores
2. Signaling, act as internal messengers ( hunting, finding opposite sex and way) or
3. As part of their secondary metabolism, attracting pollinating insects to their host.
Nevertheless, there are an almost uncountable number of single substances and a
tremendous variation in the composition of essential oils. Many of these volatile
substances have diverse ecological functions.
DIFFERENECE BETWEEN FATTY OILS AND ESSENTAIL OIL
FATTY OILS ESSENTIAL OILS
Naturally occurring mixture of lipids Compounds of terpenoids and others.
Exist in the form of alcohols, acids, esters,
epoxides, aldehydes, ketones etc.
Not necessary volatile Volatile
Extracted by organic solvents Liberated from their matrix by steam
distillation, dry distillation, expression, etc.
Mostly extracted from seeds. Occur in oil cells, secretory ducts, cavities,
glands, hairs etc.
Leave a permanent stain on filter paper Evaporate completely when dropped on
filter paper.

OCCURANCE OF ESSENTIAL OILS:

Essential oils occur mainly in aromatic plants. A few of them are found in animal sources,
e.g. musk, civet and sperm whale, or are produced by microorganisms
The Council of Europe describes “essential oil” as a product obtained from “vegetable
raw material”. Owing to a ban on animal-based flavour and fragrance materials, essential
oils of trade are entirely of plant origin.
Main source of aromatic compounds in perfume production, primarily because of their
relative ease of accessibility, and the great variety of odors among them.

The source of aromatic compounds can come from different parts of the plants.
 Flowers like the rose and jasmine,
 Fruits like apple, strawberries, cherries, vanilla
 Resin like frankincense, myrrh and pine,
 Bulbs like those of the iris plant,
 Bark like cinnamon,
 Seeds like Tonka bean, coriander, anise and others,
 Roots like orrisroot.
 Woods like sandalwood, rosewood, pinewood

In plants, essential oils occur in oil cells, secretory ducts or cavities, or in glandular hairs.
In some cases, they are bound with carbohydrates in the form of glycosides. In such
cases, they must be liberated by hydrolysis of the glycosidic bond. This is done by
allowing enzymatic reactions to take place during wilting prior to distillation of fresh plant
materials. Mosses, liverworts, seaweeds, sponges and fungi have also been shown to
contain essential oils.
Besides higher plants, some terrestrial and marine animals, insects, fungi and
microorganisms are also known to biosynthesize volatile compounds

CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF ESSENTIAL OILS:

Essential oils may comprise volatile compounds of terpenoid or non-terpenoid origin. All
of them are hydrocarbons and their oxygenated derivatives.
Some may also contain nitrogen or sulphur derivatives. They may exist in the form of
alcohols, acids, esters, epoxides, aldehydes, ketones, amines, sulphides, etc.
Monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and even diterpenes constitute the composition of many
essential oils. In addition, phenylpropanoids, fatty acids and their esters, or their
decomposition products are also encountered as volatiles.
Essential oils differ entirely both in chemical and in physical properties from fatty oils.
Essential oil evaporates completely when dropped on filter paper; however, fixed oil
leaves a permanent stain which does not evaporate even when heated.

All plants possess principally the ability to produce volatile compounds, quite often,
however, only in traces. “Essential oil plants” in particular are those plant species
delivering an essential oil of commercial interest. Two principal circumstances determine
a plant to be used as an essential oil plant:
 A unique blend of volatiles like the flower scents in rose, jasmine, or tuberose.
Such flowers produce and immediately emit the volatiles by the epidermal layers
of their petals. Therefore the yield is even in intensive smelling flowers very low,
and besides distillation, special techniques, as an example, enfleurage has to be
applied to recover the volatile fragrance compounds.
 Secretion and accumulation of volatiles in specialized storage structures. This
leads to higher concentrations of the essential oil in the plant. Such storage
structures for essential oils can be secretory cells (e.g. roots), cavities/ducts, or
glandular trichomes.
The monoterpene biosynthesis in different species of Lamiaceae, for example, sage and
peppermint is restricted to a brief period early in leaf development. The monoterpene
biosynthesis in peppermint reaches a maximum in 15-day-old leaves, only very low rates
were observed in leaves younger than 12 days or older than 20 days. The monoterpene
content of the peppermint leaves increased rapidly up to day 21, then leveled off, and
kept stable for the remainder of the leaf life.
The differences in the complex composition of two essential oils of one kind may
sometimes be difficult to assign to specific chemotypes or to differences arising in the
consequence of the reactions of the plants to specific environmental conditions, for
example, to different growing locations.
In general, the differences due to genetical differences are much bigger than by different
environmental conditions.
Pure essential oils are mixtures of more than 200 components, normally mixtures of
terpenes or phenylpropanic derivatives. They can be essentially classified into two
groups:
Volatile fraction: Essential oil constituting of 90–95% of the oil in weight, containing
the monoterpene and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, as well as their oxygenated
derivatives along with aliphatic aldehydes, alcohols, and esters.
Nonvolatile residue: that comprises 1–10% of the oil, containing hydrocarbons, fatty
acids, sterols, carotenoids, waxes, and flavonoids.
Hydrocarbon: Basic Hydrocarbon found in plant is isoprene having the following
structure.

Terpenes: For examples: Limonene, Pinene, Piperene, Camphene, etc. Terpenes are
anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antiviral, and bactericidal. Terpenes can be further
categorized in monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and diterpenes. Referring back to
isoprene units under the Hydrocarbon heading, when two of these isoprene units join
head to tail, the result is a monoterpene, when three join, it’s a sesquiterpene and four
linked isoprene units are diterpenes.

Esters

Methyl salicylate the main constituent of wintergreen oil, is derived from benzoic acid.
Other important esters are linalyl acetate, benzyl benzoate and benzyl isobutyrate.

Nitrogen-Containing Essential Oil Constituents

Methyl anthranilate is found in the oils of sweet orange, lemon, mandarin, bergamot,
neroli and ylang-ylang oils and jasmine and tuberose absolutes. Pyridines and
pyrazines have been detected in black pepper, sweet orange and vetiver oils.

Sulphur-Containing Essential Oil Constituents:

Several sulphides and thiophenes such as dimethyl sulphide, dimethyl disulphide, diallyl
disulphide, are volatile constituents of garlic, onion, leek and shallot oils.
Alcohols:

Menthol in mint oil, linalool in coriander, terpineol in pine wood, Citronellol in rose oil,
etc.
Aldehydes:

Benzaldehyde in bitter almond, Geranial in lemon oil, cinnamoaldehyde in cinnamon,

etc.

Ketones:
Carvone in caraway and spearmint, etc.

USES OF ESSENTIAL OILS:

Essential oils, their fractions and their isolates are utilized in flavour and fragrance, food,
perfumery, cosmetics and toiletries, fine chemicals, pharmaceutical industries and
therapy. They are used as such or in diluted forms in the budding aromatherapy sector.

Monoterpenes [C10H16 ] Properties: Analgesic, Bactericidal, Expectorant, and

Stimulant.
Sesquiterpenes Properties: anti-inflammatory, anti-septic, analgesic, anti-allergic.
Diterpenes Properties: anti-fungal, expectorant, hormonal balancers, hypotensive.
Alcohols: Properties: anti-septic, anti-viral, bactericidal and germicidal. Alcohols have a
very low or totally absent toxic reaction in the body or on the skin. Therefore, they are
considered safe to use.
Aldehydes: Properties: anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-septic, anti-viral,
bactericidal, disinfectant, sedative.
Acids: Properties: anti-inflammatory. Organic acids in their free state are generally
found in very small quantities within Essential oils. Plant acids act as components or
buffer systems to control acidity.
Esters: Esters are formed through the reaction of alcohols with acids. Essential oils
containing esters are used for their soothing, balancing effects. Because of the
presence of alcohol, they are effective antimicrobial agents. Medicinally, esters are
characterized as antifungal and sedative, with a balancing action on the nervous
system.
Ketones: Properties: anti-catarrhal, cell proliferant, expectorant, vulnery.
Lactones: Properties: anti-inflammatory, antiphlogistic, expectorant, febrifuge.