Tinh dầu và nguyên liệu hương Ai Cập

Egypt grows Jasminum grandiflorum, the large five-petalled species, distinct from the jasmine sambac of India and Vietnam. Jasmine is concentrated in Gharbia governorate; the village of Shubra Beloula in Qutur district has grown it since the 1950s and harvests over 2,500 tonnes of flowers a year.

The flowers open at night. Pickers start around 3 a.m. to take freshly opened blooms before the sun rises; each gathers 3 to 5 kg in a session. The season runs June to November, busiest July to September. Flowers are extracted with hexane into concrete, then washed with alcohol into absolute.

Jasmine grandiflorum absolute has benzyl acetate, benzyl benzoate and linalool as major constituents, with small but decisive amounts of indole, cis-jasmone, methyl jasmonate and methyl anthranilate.

In 2024 BBC Eye filmed children as young as five picking jasmine in Gharbia for the supply chains of major perfume brands, and showed that the industry's audit systems had not detected it. Pickers are paid about 30 Egyptian pounds per kg of flowers (2025).

Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) is grown in Beni Suef and Fayoum, about 110 km south of Cairo. According to a 2015 International Trade Centre (ITC) report, the crop covers about 3,500 hectares and yields 200 to 230 tonnes of oil a year, involving some 8,000 households.

It is planted in October to November and the whole aerial part is cut in June, at flowering; some areas take a second cut in October to November. Egyptian oil has 25 to 36% citronellol and 10 to 18% geraniol, a ratio of about 2.4 to 1. Chinese oil has a much higher ratio. The marker for Egyptian oil is 10-epi-gamma-eudesmol, about 3 to 6%.

Egyptian basil (Ocimum basilicum) is grown in Beni Suef, Minya and Assiut. Egyptian oil is of the linalool type: linalool is the largest constituent, with estragole (methyl chavicol) lower and variable by area. A study comparing samples from three governorates reported linalool, estragole, methyl cinnamate and eucalyptol as the main constituents.

Chemotype matters for users. Estragole is restricted by IFRA; estragole-type basil oils (Comoros, Vietnam) and linalool-type oils (Egypt, Europe) are not interchangeable.

Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco are the three main sources of bitter orange flower (Citrus aurantium) for perfumery. Flowers are picked in March to April. They yield neroli oil by steam distillation, with orange flower water as a by-product, or orange flower absolute by solvent extraction.

Neroli and orange flower absolute smell clearly different: neroli is lighter and greener, rich in linalool and monoterpenes; the absolute is heavier and sweeter, with more methyl anthranilate and indole. A 2011 analysis of Egyptian neroli oil found linalool to be its largest constituent.

Violet leaf absolute is solvent-extracted from the leaves of Viola odorata grown in the Nile Delta. Egypt is the main source of this absolute. Its cold green, cucumber-like scent comes from (2E,6Z)-nona-2,6-dienal, known as violet leaf aldehyde; the molecule is present at low levels but has a very low odour threshold. Violet leaf absolute does not smell of violet flowers; that scent comes from ionones.

German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is grown in Fayoum and Beni Suef, mainly for export as dried flowers for tea. Part of the crop is distilled into a deep blue oil, coloured by chamazulene that forms from matricin during distillation.