Natural flavors

Plant-based natural perfume: Plant-based natural perfume is made of flowers, branches, leaves, grasses, roots, bark, stems, seeds or fruits of aromatic plants as raw materials, and produces essential oils, extracts, tinctures, balms, incense resins and pure oils by steam distillation, extraction, pressing, absorption and other methods, such as rose oil, jasmine extract, vanilla tincture, white orchid balm, turu resin, narcissus pure oil, etc.

The extraction methods are: (1) steam distillation and water distillation, which are widely used in the extraction of leaves, stems, stems, bark, seeds and roots, such as mint, cypress, cinnamon, vettif, litsea cubeba, etc. (2) Pressing and cold grinding method are mainly used for oil extraction of citrus fruits such as sweet oranges, lemons, and bergamots. Because this method is not heated, the aroma of the essential oil obtained is fresh. (3) Solvent leaching method is mainly used for the processing of flowers, aromatic plant resins and spices. The volatile organic solvents used are petroleum ether, ethanol, acetone, etc., which are selected according to different raw materials. The substance obtained from the extract after the extraction of flowers and the solvent is called extract, such as jasmine extract, white orchid extract, etc.: if it is obtained from resins, it is called incense resin, such as parsnip resin, benzoin resin, etc.; Obtained from spices, it is called oleoresin, such as chili oleoresin, celery seed oleoresin, etc. Because the extract contains more wax and has poor solubility performance, ethanol is commonly used to put out the alcohol-soluble fragrance ingredients, filter out the insoluble wax, and finally evaporate the ethanol under reduced pressure to obtain clean oil. The extraction of natural flavors using liquid butane, carbon dioxide and supercritical fluid extraction techniques is a relatively new process and is only used in a few spice plants.

Fauna natural perfume: Fauna natural perfume is the secretion or excrement of animals. There are more than a dozen kinds of animal-based natural spices, and only 4 kinds of musk, ambergris, civet and beaver are commonly used to form commodities and are often used, and ethanol is commonly used to make them into tinctures. Plants containing essential oils are distributed in many families and genera, mainly Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae, Asteraceae, Rutaceae, Pinaceae, Umbelliferaceae, Lauraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae and Cypressaceae, etc., and their production areas are all over the world. For example, Chinese mint, cinnamon, laurel leaf, star anise, litsea cubeba seed, lemongrass, osmanthus and jasmine, white orchid, tree orchid, etc.; Sandalwood and lemongrass from India, jasmine from Egypt, rosewood from Guyana, cloves from Tanzania, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, vanilla from Madagascar, petitgrain from Paraguay, lavender from France, roses from Bulgaria, spearmint from the United States, and citrus from Italy are all internationally renowned. There are about 200~300 kinds of natural spices commonly used in the world, and more than 100 kinds are produced in China, among which jasmine microflora, white orchid, tree orchid and so on are unique products in China.

In addition, the flavors produced by biotechnology such as fermentation process, such as butyric acid, butanedione, benzaldehyde, etc., are also natural flavors, and such flavors have been valued and developed in food flavors. [2]

Artificial flavors

Synthetic and mono-fragrances. Synthetic fragrances synthesized from chemical raw materials, such as coumarin, phenylethanol and linalool synthesized from acetylene and acetone; The purer fragrance components are separated from essential oils by physical or chemical methods, such as citral, which is isolated from litsea cubeba seed oil, cypress naphtha, etc., which are separated from cypress oil; It is called semi-synthetic fragrance derived from the terpene compounds in mono fragrance or essential oil through chemical reaction, such as ionone prepared from citral, terpineol synthesized from pinene, etc. Most of the mono-synthetic and semi-synthetic fragrance varieties can also be prepared by fully synthetic method, but there are subtle differences in aroma quality. The production of synthetic fragrances is not limited by natural conditions, the quality of products is stable, the price is relatively low, and there are many products that do not exist in nature and have a unique aroma, so they have developed rapidly in the past 20 years. There are three main aspects in the development of synthetic fragrances: (1) the synthesis of natural products, such as geraniol, irisone, etc.; (2) Chemical processing of bulk essential oil raw materials, such as pinene (turpentine), citronellal (citronella oil), etc.; (3) Utilization of organic chemical raw materials, such as coal tar products, petrochemical raw materials, etc. There are no less than 2,000 varieties of synthetic spices commonly used, and the output varies.

According to the chemical structure, the classification and structure of synthetic fragrances can be divided into hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, alcohols, phenols, ethers, acids, esters, lactones, aldehydes, ketones, acetals (ketones), nitriles, heterocycles, etc. The molecular weight of synthetic spices is between 50~300, the larger the molecular weight, the smaller the volatility, and the weaker the aroma. For example, vanillin (3-methoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde) has a pleasant aroma aroma of vanilla bean, while its isomer 2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde has an unpleasant smell similar to phenol. nerolisol and geraniol are cis-trans geometric isomers, with the former having a softer and sweeter aroma; C-trans rose ether is a stereoisomer, and the aroma is better than cis. The relationship between the molecular structure and organoleptic properties of fragrances is a subject that fragrance chemists are actively researching.