Floral Notes – Muguet (Lily of the valley)

The third floral note is Lily of the valley.As the name suggests, lily of the valley is a flower like a bell, and it blooms pretty flowers around May. The scent is a gorgeous scent with a botanical feel.Muguet in French. In France, it is customary to give lilies of the valley on May Day (May 1st).The scent of lily of the valley is wonderful, but the floral notes of lily of the valley contained in the perfume are basically not natural products. It is a compound.

One of the reasons is the toxicity of lily of the valley. This is due to convallatoxin and convalalamine.This “combalaria …” is because the genus Lily of the valley is called Convallaria. In other words, convallatoxin means “lily of the valley poison”. This poison is contained throughout the body of lily of the valley, and is a substance with a high content especially in flowers and roots. If you keep lily of the valley as a cut flower, the poison will dissolve in the water and come out.Therefore, if you try to take the essential oil of lily of the valley, the essential oil may contain these poisons.

Therefore, many perfumes use synthetic perfumes as lily of the valley. Most are synthetic fragrances called “Hydroxycitronellal”.Citronellol was also mentioned in the section “Floral Note (1) -Scent of Roses”. It is a substance with a scent similar to roses, and is one of the constituents of rose floral notes.Hydroxycitronellol is a processed substance, or derivative, of this citronellol.

Floral note 4: Lira

The above are the three major floral notes, but there is also a famous lilac scent. It is sometimes called the four major floral notes, including the scent of lilac.

Lilac, the Japanese name is Murasaki Hasidoi. It blooms small purple flowers (including white). There is also a theory that the flower blooms like a lump at the tip of a branch, so it was named “edge gathering”.However, English and French are more famous than the Japanese name “Murasaki Hasidoi”. Lilac in English and Lilas in French.The Takarazuka Revue has a song called “When the Sumire Flowers Bloom”. The original song is a chanson called “Quand refleuriront les lilas blanc”. In other words, in the original song, it was not “Sumire” but “White Lira”.

Strictly speaking, the above chanson is a cover song of the German song “If the white lilac blooms again” (German Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht). In any case, it was a “white lila”. When it was sung in Japan, Lira was unfamiliar, so she changed it to violet.It is now widely cultivated in Japan because of the beauty of the flowers with the scent of lila. Therefore, it is possible to communicate with lilac and lilac.Lilac alcohol is an aroma component.

 Floral note ~ Summary ~

I have explained the three major “floral notes” + α used in perfumes. Perfumes have an interesting background both chemically and culturally. We will continue to explore the secrets of perfumes other than floral notes.

An article on Floral notes – Rose is here;

Flower scent “floral note” Rose 

Speaking of perfumes, the scent of flowers is an element that must not be forgotten. In the world of perfuming, it is called “floral note”. “Floral” means “flower”, but the term “note” may be somewhat surprising. Of course, it is different from the meaning of “notebook”. In fact, the term “note” also means “the tone of a musical instrument, musical notes, keys of a piano, etc.” Perfuming is a kind of composing a music tune. The harmony of scents is a perfume, and the “flower scents” that echo in the perfume are “floral notes”.