Ambroxane
Ambroxane is one of the trade spellings for ambroxide, the saturated tricyclic ether formally named 3a,6,6,9a-tetramethyldodecahydronaphtho[2,1-b]furan. The molecule is a degraded labdane terpene: three fused rings carrying four methyl groups, with an oxygen bridging the last ring to close a tetrahydrofuran. It is the same substance sold elsewhere as ambroxan and under several proprietary names.
Structurally it sits at the end of a chain that begins in the plant kingdom. Clary sage makes the diterpene sclareol, oxidative degradation shortens the side chain to a lactone, and reduction and ring closure remove one further carbon fragment and deliver the ether. The same skeleton arises in nature by slow oxidation of triterpene precursors in ambergris, which is why the synthetic material reproduces that odour so closely.
The odour is dry, woody and ambery with a warm mineral quality, and its most useful property is substantivity: it holds on skin and textile for days and anchors the more volatile materials compounded with it. The odour threshold is low, but human sensitivity to it varies more than for most aroma chemicals. The material is a white crystalline solid melting in the middle seventies, insoluble in water, soluble in ethanol and oils, and chemically stable in storage.
We source bulk Ambroxane from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturers are in Sichuan and Tianjin. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
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- Function
- Flavours and Aromas
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | White to off white crystalline powder or flake |
| Odour | Dry woody amber, warm and highly substantive |
| Assay by Gas Chromatography | Not less than 98.0% |
| Related Substances | Not more than 2.0% total |
| Melting Range | 73 C to 77 C |
| Specific Optical Rotation | Minus 18 degrees to minus 28 degrees, 1% in chloroform |
| Loss on Drying | Not more than 0.5% |
| Residue on Ignition | Not more than 0.1% |
| Residual Solvent | Not more than 500 mg/kg total |
| Solubility | Insoluble in water, soluble in ethanol and in fixed oils |
| Heavy Metals as Lead | Not more than 10 mg/kg |
| Lead | Not more than 1.0 mg/kg |
| Arsenic | Not more than 0.5 mg/kg |
Common Markets Grades
The traded specification is the levorotatory isomer at ninety eight percent or better, since the odour resides almost entirely in that configuration, and optical rotation is therefore a release test alongside assay and melting range. The material is offered as crystalline powder, as flake and, for buyers with heated handling systems, as a molten liquid. The choice is driven by dust control in the compounding room rather than by any difference in the material.
Origin provides the commercially meaningful split. Sclareol derived material follows the agricultural chain from clary sage and is the traditional article. Fermentation derived material, made by converting sugar to a terpene precursor in an engineered yeast and cyclising it enzymatically, is the same molecule with a different supply story and no dependence on a crop. Dilutions at ten to fifty percent in dipropylene glycol or a similar solvent are traded for compounders dosing small quantities.
Applications
- Fine perfumery, as the amber and woody base of oriental, woody and modern skin scent compositions
- Fragrance fixative use, holding lighter top and middle notes on the skin for longer
- Body sprays, deodorants and antiperspirants, where persistence through the day is the requirement
- Shower gel, shampoo and rinse off personal care, since it deposits rather than washing away entirely
- Laundry detergent and fabric conditioner, where it survives the wash and releases from the dried fibre
- Air care, candles and reed diffusers, using its low volatility and thermal stability
- Tobacco flavouring, added in small quantity for a sweet ambery rounding
- Ambergris accord reconstitution, standing in for a raw material now restricted in trade
- Cosmetic products marketed on a warm skin scent claim rather than as a compounded perfume
China Manufacturers of Ambroxane
Top Ambroxane manufacturers in China.
Mianyang SMG-Biotech Co., Ltd.2 ingredients in the directory- Tianxin Flavors Co., Ltd.3 ingredients in the directory
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
The substance is used almost entirely in fragrance, so its principal regulation is as a cosmetic and household product ingredient. The fragrance industry standards for the safe use of aroma materials set the conditions for its inclusion in leave on and rinse off products, and cosmetic ingredient law in each market governs safety assessment and labelling around that.
Where it is used as a flavouring in food, the clearance needed in the European Union is entry on the Union list of authorised flavouring substances, and in the United States it is clearance as a flavouring, in practice through the FEMA GRAS programme. No E number applies, since flavourings fall outside the food additive framework. Material that goes into tobacco use falls under the ingredient reporting and additive rules of the market concerned. Natural ambergris, which the synthetic material replaced, is restricted under wildlife trade law in several jurisdictions.
Manufacturing Process
Two industrial routes converge on the same product. The sclareol route takes the diterpene extracted from clary sage and cleaves its side chain by oxidation to give sclareolide, a step formerly run with chromium or permanganate reagents and now more usually carried out by a yeast in a fermentation vessel, which removes the heavy metal waste stream. The lactone is reduced with a metal hydride to the diol, and the diol is cyclodehydrated with an acid catalyst, which expels water and closes the furan ring to give ambroxide.
The biotechnology route bypasses the crop. An engineered yeast is fed sugar and produces a homofarnesol type acyclic precursor, which a cyclase enzyme folds and closes directly to the tricyclic ether in a single catalysed step, reproducing in a reactor the ring closure that occurs slowly in nature. Whichever route is used, the crude product is neutralised and washed, then purified by crystallisation from an alcohol or hydrocarbon solvent, recrystallised where the assay requires it, vacuum dried below the melting point, milled or flaked and packed into lined drums or fibre kegs.
