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Tonka bean in perfumery

Tonka bean is a magical seed with multiple facets, and has a gourmand vanilla note.
You will learn everything you need to know about tonka bean and its main component, coumarin, a product isolated from tonka bean and reproduced in synthesis, which has always been used in perfumery.

 

Little magic seed of the tonka bean

Tonka bean is found in South America, particularly in Venezuela, Guyana, Mexico and Brazil. It comes from the fruit of a tropical tree called dipteryx odorata. It is also called coumarouna, coumaru, Cayenne guaiac or sarrapia.
The same name is used for the coumarou tree that gives the fruit whose core is tonka bean.

It grows along the banks of the Amazonian rivers. It is 20 to 30 metres high and has a red, teak-like trunk, 50 to 70 cm in diameter, large leaves reminiscent of walnut and quite fragrant flowers once the fruit has ripened. Its fruits are almond-shaped and each contains a single black, oval, oblong, shiny seed that wrinkles as it dries. Then it begins to smell and its perfume becomes pronounced.

 

Harvest of the tonka bean

The papilionaceous flowers change their color from white to pink. Most of the fruits mature after falling to the ground.The harvest takes place in May. The ripen fruits are collected from the ground. They dry for a year, then the shell is broken with a stone or a hammer to extract the seeds. The recovered beans are dried in the sun, further on immersed in containers with strong alcohol at 65° for 24 hours. They are then air-dried, which causes a beautiful white glaze to form, as a result the coumarin crystals appear. One tree yields between 15 and 75 kg of fruit per year. The person who harvests the tonka beans is called a sappapiero. The annual production varies between 60 and 100 tons, depending on the climate.

 

The scent of the tonka bean 

The scent of the tonka bean is a multifaceted scent: vanilla, tobacco, gourmand, almond, woody, with scents of gingerbread and pistachio.

 

 

Coumarin from the tonka bean 

The main molecule of this raw material is called coumarin. Tonka bean contains 46% of coumarin which has a very almondy scent and is very similar to the smell of the little pots of Cleopatra glue of our childhood. Unfortunately, the younger generation is not familiar with this scent, as the smell of school glue is now very different.

Coumarin gives off a warm, gourmand scent, with accents of hay, tobacco and pistachio. It is a very tenacious base note.

In 1856, the chemists Friedrich Wöhler and Justus Von Liebig discovered coumarin in tonka bean seeds.
In 1868, an English chemist William H Perkin succeeded in synthesising it.
Tonka bean contains 46% of coumarin, but you can also find it in smaller quantities in Liatris plant (25%), as well as in sweet fluke (8%) and cinnamon (0.45%).
It is considered as an allergen by IFRA regulations. Its percentage is limited to 1.5% in the final product.

Coumarin is a white powder that is composed of a lactone and an ester group.

 

The first use of coumarin

In 1882, the perfumer Paul Parquet used coumarin in Fougère Royale by Houbigant. This perfume was the origin of a new family of perfumes, the fern family.

The synthesis of coumarin was developed in 1868 and was used, together with linalool and ethyl vanillin, in Guerlain's Jicky. The latter also belongs to the fern family.

Tonka bean, which is gourmand, is also well suited to oriental or floral notes.

 

Properties of the tonka bean 

Locally, people use it to treat certain ailments. It has tonic properties and is also an anticoagulant.

 

The multi-use of the tonka bean 

Initially, these seeds were ground into powder and sold in sachets to be placed in cupboards between piles of laundry.

In perfumery, the bean is processed by extraction with volatile solvents to obtain the tonka bean absolute.

In cooking and pastry-making, the bean itself can also be grated in the same way as a nutmeg. It can be used with chocolate (in a dark chocolate ganache for example), coffee, cakes and desserts (panna cotta). It can also be combined with savoury notes to release its aromas and flavours. You should be careful, just like nutmeg, tonka bean can be a little bit dangerous in high doses.

Tonka bean is also used to flavour snuff and tobacco pipe, a practice which is now banned in France and the USA.

I like to put tonka beans in my car near the heater, it is a delight.

 

Perfumes containing tonka bean

Here is the list of perfumes that contain tonka bean:

  • Guerlinade by Guerlain
  • Jicky by Guerlain
  • Tonka impériale by Guerlain
  • Shalimar by Guerlain
  • Heure Bleue by Guerlain
  • Samsara by Guerlain
  • Mon Guerlain by Guerlain
  • Vétiver Tonka by Hermès
  • Tonka by Le Labo
  • Code by Armani
  • Lion by Chanel
  • Le Mâle by Gaultier
  • Hypnose by Lancôme
  • Hypnotic Poison by Dior
  • Fève Délicieuse by Dior
  • Allure pour Homme by Chanel
  • Tonka by Réminiscence
  • Vahina by Sylvaine Delacourte Paris
  • Ozkan by Sylvaine Delacourte Paris

 

Sylvaine Delacourte fragrances

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.