Tagetes absolute

Sharp green fruit, green apple, tomato leaf, bitter herb, a little citrus. Very strong and diffusive; dilution gives a tropical-fruit note.

IFRA has a standard for Tagetes oil and absolute combining prohibition, restriction and specification. The reason is phototoxicity: the material can cause skin reactions on exposure to sunlight. Maximum levels are very low and apply to the Tagetes species named in the standard.

Do not exceed IFRA levels in leave-on products. Store dark, sealed and cool; ocimene and tagetones oxidise easily.

Tagetes minuta is an annual herb native to South America, now naturalised widely. It yields an oil and an absolute for flavour and fragrance. The English name marigold is easily confused with pot marigold (Calendula), a different genus.

Tagetes patula and T. erecta, the ornamental marigolds common in Vietnam, belong to the same genus. Marigolds are used widely at Tết and in offerings, but the fragrance raw material is mainly T. minuta.

An absolute is made in two steps. The raw material is extracted with a non-polar solvent such as hexane to give a waxy concrete. The concrete is then washed with ethanol, chilled to precipitate waxes, filtered and freed of alcohol. What remains is the absolute.

Main constituents are ocimene, dihydrotagetone, tagetones and ocimenones. These ketones give the characteristic green-fruity note. The plant also contains thiophenes such as α-terthienyl, linked to phototoxicity.

In perfumery tagetes is used at trace level for green-fruity, apple and tropical notes, often in florals and chypres. The IFRA standard is strict, so many producers use synthetics instead.

The library's taget page covers the distilled oil. The absolute carries heavier components and a darker colour and falls under the same IFRA standard.