Perfume: The Art Crafted in the Chemistry Lab

Today I would like to briefly discuss pleasant fragrances, the stages of their creation, and the artistic side of Chemistry. Why Fragrances?

The effect of scent on people is something known to everyone. Pleasant fragrances have always positively influenced people and have been used to create perceptions of cleanliness, freshness, beauty, and even power and wealth. Despite being a luxury sector today, the perfume concept—entirely chemistry-based and undiminished in its power—continues its path. Let us take a closer look at this concept and its development throughout history. Perfume is one of the areas in the cosmetics industry where the most intense competition and prestige battles take place. With its secret formulas, large R&D laboratories, advertising campaigns featuring renowned names, specially designed bottles, and product prices that can reach very high figures, it holds a distinctive place within the cosmetics sector.

The Past and Present of Fragrance

For this reason, it was thought that these initial research efforts in this field were necessary. The finding is as follows: the concept of "scent" is a very special field that can be connected with literature, every branch of art, history, and every moment of life. The concept of perfume is like speaking of paradise and is as old as human history. Imagine a world filled with flowers and flourishing with greenery. For a human living in such a world, it is impossible to know exactly how the first perfume was obtained from flower fragrances or other pleasant scents.

What Is Perfume?

By definition, perfume is the general term for mixtures made from fragrant oils, aromatic combinations, and various chemical substances, used to give pleasant scent to the human body, various objects, and environments. In the Turkish Language Association Dictionary, the word "perfume" is defined as "pleasant scent" and "bottled pleasant scent." Perfumery is a form of fragrance art. With a history dating back thousands of years, it is described as Tantric and Hermetic art. The fragrant oils and perfumes that have reached us from thousands of years ago in ancient vessels, accompanied by knowledge, legends, and rituals, rank among the most sacred items ever produced by humanity. A discovery from excavations in Mesopotamia is extremely significant. This object, shaped like an ox head, was used not only for holding perfume but also as a beauty element and for religious purposes. This extraordinary object bears witness to a very important time period. Perfume was developed by the Sumerians 4,000 years ago. The Sumerians were the first civilization to develop distillation and extraction techniques in the world. With these techniques, they discovered how to extract the essence of fragrant plants. Before perfume, fragrant incenses were used. After the discovery of fire, people who burned wood and shrubs probably noticed that some plants emitted pleasant odors. However, it took many years for them to identify these woods and plants and make incense from them. The Chinese are known to have burned incense in the Neolithic Period and continued to burn it for religious purposes from around 2,000 B.C. onward. There are also documents showing that they burned incense made from cinnamon and sandalwood. Perfume and incense, known to the Sumerians, were further developed in Babylon, which continued this civilization, and we can say that a more methodical stage was reached in fragrance use. The Babylonians also used incense. For the Indians and Egyptians, who learned incense burning from the Chinese, fragrance became part of daily life. In Egypt, wood resins used for incense-making have been found in 6,000 to 7,000-year-old tombs. These discoveries serve as proof of the recognition of incense. Incense, after the Chinese, was also used by other cultures for religious purposes, in treating illness, and in driving away evil spirits. This tradition has continued to the present day. The production of perfume became possible thanks to the Sumerians' discovery of distillation and extraction techniques. The Sumerians used distillation apparatus around 3,500 B.C. This apparatus resembled a double-lipped ceramic pot. Wine was placed inside, the lid was closed, and when the apparatus was heated from below, distilled alcohol accumulated between the two lips at the top. By placing dried flowers in the wine and distilling them together, plant essence mixed with alcohol could be obtained—which also proves that the history of perfume did not begin with Hungary Water. The extraction apparatus also resembled a double-lipped pot, with 5-6 holes opening toward the interior of the pot between the two lips. Initially, the Sumerians did not use perfume to smell pleasant but to oil their bodies. This was because they believed that fragrant oils would drive away evil spirits and strengthen them. The bodies of the dead were also oiled with perfumes. The material most commonly used for this purpose was myrrh.

Myrrh

In this respect, myrrh had the characteristic of being a bridge between two worlds. It is quite understandable that this bridge was built through a mystical element whose scent was perceived, pleasant, and influential. Even today. Babylon was the capital of the ancient world at that time. And it was quite natural for such a formation—namely, the production of perfume—to take place there. The world's oldest known perfume maker mentioned in written records is Tapputi, a female Babylonian chemist who lived around 2,000 B.C.

Who Could Fault the Idea of Making Perfume from a Thousand Different Types of Flowers Blooming in the Famous Hanging Gardens?

Another perfume workshop and distillation apparatus in Babylon, reportedly built by Semiramis approximately 4,000 years ago, was discovered in 2005 in the town of Pyrgos in northern Cyprus. The remains of this facility found in Cyprus are considered the world's first perfume factory. During the Abbasid period, chemists of the Islamic world introduced perfume to Europe. Initially used for more sacred purposes such as driving away evil spirits, perfume was later used in Egypt and Babylon solely for smelling pleasant. El-Jabir, the chemist of Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, had the most advanced chemistry laboratory of his time. Through the books he wrote, he enabled Europeans to understand the principles of chemistry. With the modernized distillation and extraction techniques he developed, producing volatile oils necessary for perfume became easier. Europeans translated 70 of his more than 100 books into Latin. Another important chemist of the Abbasid period was Al-Kindi. His book, titled "Kitab al-'Itr wa-l-Ta'rir" (Book on Perfumes and Perfumery), is entirely about making perfume and distillation. It would not be wrong to say that Europeans learned chemistry techniques and perfume-making from the books of El-Jabir and Al-Kindi. First, some priests in Italy began making perfume in the 1200s A.D. using the techniques and formulas developed by the chemists of the Islamic world. The fact that alcohol had not been used in perfumes until that time was probably related to the Islamic belief system. Upon the request of Hungarian Queen Elizabeth, a cologne called "Hungary Water" was produced in 1370.

Fragrance History and the Turks

The Turks maintained their dominant position throughout history on the famous silk and incense routes, and were always present in this process. During the Ottoman Empire period, the place now known as Gülhane produced rose oil and rose water, and rose water was used very intensively in daily life. These were presented to guests in special containers made of gold or silver called gülabndan. Perfume production in France was developed in the 16th century by Italian experts. The flowers necessary for perfume were also grown in France, and France became the perfume center. In the Middle Ages, the French, who did not bathe frequently, used perfume abundantly to mask body odors with fragrance. Today, Italy and France are Europe's perfume centers. The word "perfume" comes from the Latin "perfumum," meaning "from the vapor through." The world's first cologne produced in Cologne, Germany. An advertisement for it. Essence, perfume, and cologne are commercial products named differently according to the amount of aromatic substances they contain. Essence: more than 20%, Eau de Parfume: 15%, Eau de Toilette: 10%, Eau de Cologne: 5%, and aftershave: 1% aromatic substances. Essences are volatile oils obtained from flowers and fragrant plants and are obtained through distillation or pressing. Sometimes the mixture is fermented, and a fixative is added to ensure the scent's permanence. Perfume is made by mixing alcohol and different essences in varying proportions. King Henry VIII of England and his daughter Elizabeth I, who later ascended to the throne, had special perfumes produced. Cologne is a mixture produced in 1709 by G. P. Feminis, an Italian barber in Cologne, Germany, and known as "Eau de Cologne" (Cologne Water). The mixture, containing lemon, bitter orange, orange, and bergamot essences dissolved in alcohol, led to similar products in other countries also being called cologne. When the cologne became famous overnight, the Italian barber brought his nephew Farina into the business and expanded it. During the Seven Years' War, French, Austrian, and Russian soldiers took cologne to their countries and introduced it. As a result of intense perfume demand in later periods, synthetic fragrances also entered the field.

The first synthetic perfume is nitrobenzene, made from nitric acid and benzene. Nitrobenzene

This first synthetic scent gives an almond odor and was generally used as a soap scent. Coumarin was synthesized by William Perkin in 1868.

Coumarin

Ferdinand Tiemann from Berlin University synthesized synthetic violet and vanilla.  

Alpha-Ionone (Violet scent)

   

Vanillin

Francis Despard Dodge, in the United States, succeeded in synthesizing citronellol, an alcohol with a rose-like scent, by experimenting with citronella, which is obtained from citronella oil and has a lemon-like scent. These compounds, obtained through different syntheses, provide the scents of sweet pea, narcissus, hyacinth, and lilies. One of the most popular compounds in recent times is Ambroxan. Ambroxan is generally used as one of the base notes of perfume compositions. There are multiple synthesis routes. In recent years, many synthetic fragrances have been produced.

Perfume Bottles

Just as the art of perfume itself advanced over centuries, so too did the art of the perfume bottle. Perfume bottles are selected with as much care as the oil they contain. Today, perfume bottles themselves are an entire sector. This sector produces hundreds of different models and materials of bottles, varying according to the quality of the product inside, the preferences of people with different economic incomes and cultures.

What, Then, Is the Current State of the Perfume Industry?

The adventure that began with the scent of a burning fire has today reached an almost frenzied point. The economic dimension of the matter is extremely significant. Not only the scent itself but even its packaging is a massive sector in its own right. As for the other side of the coin that cannot be expressed in monetary terms, it is a completely different world, one of ancient knowledge, tradition, and prestige. Perfume is the product at the very top of the pyramid of development when measured by country. When we look at it individually, it can be said to be a kind of business card that underlines our character. Our country should allocate a portion of its very valuable plant resources to this sector and must recognize how powerful this sector is. Furthermore, starting from the reality that even a single volatile oil used in perfume production contains hundreds of different chemical components, one must absolutely not overlook the fact that this is a product requiring high chemistry expertise and must definitely have R&D and relevant tests conducted in the laboratory. Cosmetics faculties should be established, and perfumery or perfume chemistry should be one of the sub-fields of study there. One must not overlook the fact that if the work were as simple as mixing essences and limited to smelling them, there would not be as few experts in the world as counted in the hundreds, nor would there be only a single research center in our country and only a single chemistry professor doing this work. The habit of fragrant products that has reached us from the Sumerians to the present day has created an important market. Today, annual perfume consumption has reached approximately USD 50 billion. Prof. Dr. Nazan Apaydın Demir - Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University / Faculty of Science - Department of Chemistry / Cosmetic Products Application and Research Center Director Respectfully.

References 1. Determining Some Bioactivities of Lily of the Valley Flower (Convallaria Majalis) and Investigating Its Usability in Perfume Design with Some Other Flowers. Sıla Nezahat-Daşdemir. 2017 (M.A. thesis) 2. Investigation of Some Bioactivities and Scent Components of White Jasmine Flower (Jasminum Officinale) and Its Use in Perfume Design. Sedef-Aşık. 2017 (M.A. thesis) 3. Determination of Some Bioactive Components of Datça Daisy; Investigation of Its Usability as Raw Material in Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Industry. Begüm Pınar-Demirkent. 2015 (M.A. thesis)