The Jasmine Code: From Indian Nights to Personalised Perfume

If India had a national scent, it would be jasmine. Found braided into a bride’s hair, offered at temple steps, or worn casually on an ordinary day, jasmine is more than a flower — it is memory, mood, and moment. But what many don’t realise is that jasmine isn’t just one plant — it is a family of flowers, each blooming in its own time, each with its own unique scent.

Take Jasminum sambac, for instance — the familiar mogra or malligai that perfumes South Indian markets before sunrise. A night bloomer, sambac is what most women wear in their hair and what many of us associate with the deep, sensuous jasmine smell. Its fragrance is powerful, warm, and slightly indolic — rich enough to fill a room and subtle enough to linger in the folds of a cotton saree.

Then there is Jasminum grandiflorum, or Spanish jasmine. Unlike sambac, it is a day-bloomer, releasing its scent in the softer morning hours. It’s this species that’s most coveted by perfumers across the world. Its profile is smoother, greener, with a transparent sweetness that forms the heart of many classical fragrances.

You also have Jasminum auriculatum, a lesser-known yet beautiful variety that blooms at night with a slightly sharper green scent. And then there’s the often-confused night-blooming jasmine — Cestrum nocturnum — which isn’t a true jasmine at all, but a powerful garden scent in its own right, often found near verandahs or fences.

What makes jasmine truly special isn’t just its scent, but its scarcity — approximately 7 lakh jasmine flowers are required to produce just one kilogram of jasmine absolute oil. The yield is painfully low, and the flowers must be harvested by hand at dawn, while the scent is still intact. No wonder then, that one kilogram of pure jasmine oil can cost anywhere from ₹7 to ₹20 lakh, depending on its origin and quality.

India is not just the home of jasmine culturally — it is also a global leader in the production and export of jasmine essential oil, especially from the southern states. Here, flower farmers, many of them women, pass down the art of jasmine harvesting through generations, unknowingly fuelling the world’s finest perfumes.

From FragraGenomics desk