There have been quite a few damsels in the past who have been complimented by their admirers as having a natural and floral fragrance. When you tell a young lady that she smells like a rose or jasmine, you are making her feel good because she knows that these are some of the most pleasant fragrances that one can imagine. Though there are quite a few other elements and compounds that have become the base of many perfumes, the contribution of flowers and their scents to the world of perfumes has been immense. It would be interesting to find out how exactly this has been possible.
Flowers
Let us start with the scent of a flower or floral scent as it is better known. These are called volatile organic compounds and also referred to as aroma compounds. These are emitted by specific kinds of floral tissue. This is a more technical way of referring to the scent generated by the petals of specific flowers. This could be from any of these flowers: geranium, rose, jasmine, chrysanthemum, plumeria, pansies, lavender, violet, etc. These are just some of the flowers that are used in this industry; there are others too which might be some exotic species that produce rare aromas. These would be exclusive and of course, quite expensive to extract.
Flower Fields
There is one important factor that needs to be kept in mind when we speak about extracting perfumes from flowers. It is quite incredible when you realize that hundreds of kilos of a specific flower could give an extremely small quantity of fragrance or aroma. This is one of the reasons why this is an industry that has to depend largely on farmers who are able to supply bulk quantities of the flower. For instance, if you want to extract about 1 litre of rose essence or raw material, you will have to use a tremendous quantity of roses. It is for this reason that perfume manufacturers who deal with floral scents, contract large farmers to supply them with raw material on a regular basis. For this, it is important to have access to large fields of roses or whatever may be the flower they are dealing in.
The world of perfumes would not exist without the contribution of flowers and their extracts/fragrance decants. In some cases, not just the petals, but other parts of the plant are also used to ensure that the perfume is of a specific quality and aroma.