Introduction
The world of fragrances comprises of an immense variety of distinct compounds and infinite possibilities for compositions both man-made and natural. The ingredients of fragrance compositions may be complex mixtures of more or less volatile substances that were extracted from natural sources such as blossoms or leaves.
However, fragrance ingredients may also be highly pure single components, either isolated from nature and then enriched and purified by sophisticated techniques, or laboratory made. The latter process may involve purely chemical synthesis methods as well as biotechnological methods, which utilize microorganisms for the production of desired volatiles.
Natural fragrance ingredients
Of course, consumers love the idea that rose gardens and lavender fields are the cradle of their perfumes, which is often the case for high quality, high priced products. While rose and lavender are relatively straightforward to be grown, harvested and processed to high quality natural fragrance ingredients, this is not the case for all desired volatiles. A famous example is the smell of sandalwood: sandalwood oil is so much sought after that sandalwood trees were heavily harvested and became a rarity on our planet. They now belong to the vulnerable category of the IUCN Red List. 1 In this sense, harvesting natural resources for the production of our favorite fragrances is not always sustainable and sometimes even impossible.
