Indonesia

Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) is a herbaceous shrub of the mint family. The oil is distilled from wilted, dried leaves; fresh leaves give little scent, so drying and light fermentation before distillation strongly affect quality. The first cut comes about six months after planting and later cuts follow every few months, so oil is available all year.

Aceh at the northern tip of Sumatra is the long-standing patchouli region; Nilam Aceh received a geographical indication in 2013. Since the 2000s the centre of production has shifted to Sulawesi, especially Kolaka district in South East Sulawesi, where patchouli is grown as an intercrop or in pure stands.

Standard SNI 06-2385-2006 requires patchouli oil to contain at least 30% patchouli alcohol. The rest is sesquiterpenes such as alpha-bulnesene, alpha-guaiene and seychellene. Patchouli is one of the few oils that improves with age; fresh oil has a green edge, aged oil is rounder and darker.

Patchouli oil is often cut with gurjun balsam or cedarwood oil to lower cost; gas chromatography is the reliable check.

According to FAO, Indonesia produced 135,178 tonnes of clove in 2023, about 73% of world output. The largest areas lie in the east: Central, North and South Sulawesi and Maluku, each with tens of thousands of hectares.

Most buds are used at home for kretek cigarettes, so Indonesia exports fewer buds than Madagascar. The main picking season runs roughly June to September, with secondary crops depending on rainfall on each island. Indonesian clove leaf oil is rich in eugenol.

Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) originates in the Banda islands of Maluku. The tree gives two spices: the seed is nutmeg and the red aril around it is mace. East Indian nutmeg oil is distilled from the seed, often from small or broken nuts below spice grade.

Indonesian nutmeg oil is mainly monoterpenes: sabinene 6 to 36%, alpha-pinene 13 to 23% and beta-pinene 8 to 15% in one multi-sample study. The phenylpropanoids myristicin, elemicin and safrole are present at lower but highly variable levels.

Nutmeg kernels readily grow mould when dried and stored in humid conditions. A 2025 study found 17% of samples from North Maluku above the EU maximum for aflatoxin B1, a main reason for rejected shipments.

Safrole is restricted in cosmetics under Annex II of the EU Cosmetics Regulation (except trace amounts from natural oils) and by IFRA; nutmeg oil has no IFRA Standard of its own and is limited through its safrole and methyl eugenol content.

Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) has been grown in Garut district, West Java, since 1918. Garut has about 2,400 hectares and produces about 60 to 75 tonnes of oil a year, around 90% of national output. The oil is distilled from washed and dried roots, dug when the plants are about 10 to 12 months old.

Java vetiver is often described as smokier than Haitian oil. On 17 September 2026 the geographical indication file for Minyak Akar Wangi Garut was handed to the Garut government; the formal certificate awaits final paperwork.

Digging roots for oil leaves sloping ground bare. In Garut, erosion on vetiver hillsides is monitored by the local government.

Java citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus) gives Java-type citronella oil, rich in citronellal and geraniol. SNI 06-3953-1995 requires at least 35% citronellal and at least 85% total geraniol. Java-type oil is a natural source for isolating citronellal, citronellol and geraniol for the aroma industry. Leaves are cut all year, several times a year.

Cananga (Cananga odorata f. macrophylla) is the form of the ylang ylang tree grown mainly on Java. The oil is distilled from the flowers at about 1% yield. Its composition resembles ylang ylang III but with more beta-caryophyllene and fewer esters. Cananga is widely used in soap and mid-priced fragrance.

Total geraniol in the Java citronella standard is a combined measure of alcohols and esters, not free geraniol alone.