Sclareol
Sclareol is a labdane type bicyclic diterpene diol found in the flowering tops of clary sage, Salvia sclarea, where it is secreted onto the surface of the calyx as part of the plant's resinous coating. Although it has a faint ambery, herbaceous odour of its own, it is bought almost entirely as a chemical intermediate rather than as an aroma material in its own right.
Its commercial importance rests on a single conversion. Oxidative cleavage of the side chain gives sclareolide, and reduction and cyclodehydration of that lactone gives ambroxide, the woody ambergris note that replaced natural ambergris in perfumery. Almost all ambroxide made from natural raw material begins as sclareol, which is why demand for the diterpene tracks the fine fragrance and functional perfumery market rather than the flavour market.
The purified material is a white to off white crystalline solid melting near ninety eight degrees, practically insoluble in water and soluble in ethanol, acetone and chlorinated solvents. It is chemically stable, non volatile at ambient temperature and easy to store, and it ships as a crystalline powder or as flakes in lined drums or fibre kegs.
We source bulk Sclareol from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturers are in Beijing and Tianjin. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
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- Function
- Flavours and Aromas
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | White to off white crystalline powder or flake |
| Odour | Faint, sweet, herbaceous and ambery |
| Assay by Gas Chromatography | Not less than 95.0% |
| Related Diterpenes | Not more than 5.0% total |
| Melting Range | 96 C to 100 C |
| Loss on Drying | Not more than 0.5% |
| Residue on Ignition | Not more than 0.1% |
| Residual Hexane | Not more than 25 mg/kg |
| Solubility | Insoluble in water, soluble in ethanol and acetone |
| 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 volume grade is technical or intermediate grade at ninety to ninety five percent, sold to chemical converters who are concerned with the yield of the downstream reaction rather than with odour, and specified on assay, melting range and residual extraction solvent. Purified grade at ninety seven percent or better is produced by repeated recrystallisation and is used where a cleaner conversion or a direct aroma use is intended.
The second distinction is by origin. Plant derived material extracted from clary sage is the traditional article and can be declared as natural, and is traded with documentation of the botanical source. Fermentation derived material, produced by engineered yeast from sugar feedstock, is chemically the same molecule and is used where a natural declaration is required without dependence on an agricultural crop. Both are offered as powder and as flake, the flake being preferred where dust control matters in the converting plant.
Applications
- Manufacture of sclareolide, the lactone intermediate obtained by oxidative cleavage of the side chain
- Manufacture of ambroxide, the principal woody ambery fragrance ingredient of modern perfumery, made from sclareolide
- Tobacco flavouring, where small additions round and sweeten the smoke profile
- Fragrance fixative use in fine perfumery, extending the life of a composition on skin and fabric
- Clary sage concrete and absolute production, in which it is the principal non volatile constituent
- Starting material for other labdane derivatives used as aroma chemicals and as research compounds
- Cosmetic preparations, where clary sage extracts standardised on sclareol are used for their skin conditioning claims
- Reference and analytical standard for the authentication of clary sage material
China Manufacturers of Sclareol
Top Sclareol manufacturers in China.
GENEDART Biotechnology Co., Ltd.6 ingredients in the directory- Tianjin CreaSyn Biotech Co., Ltd.1 ingredient 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
Sclareol is used mainly in fragrance and tobacco rather than in food, and its regulatory position reflects that. In the United States it holds FEMA GRAS status as a flavouring substance, and the flavouring substance listings of the Food and Drug Administration cover it, though the volume used as a food flavouring is small against the volume converted to fragrance intermediates. In the European Union clary sage preparations and the flavouring substances derived from them are handled under the general flavourings framework, which requires that any flavouring substance used as such appear on the Union list. No E number applies.
Material sold into perfumery is governed by the fragrance industry standards for cosmetic ingredients rather than by food law, and material sold into tobacco falls under the ingredient reporting and additive rules that apply to tobacco products in the markets concerned. Where the product is destined for pharmaceutical or cosmetic conversion, residual extraction solvent is the specification point that regulators and customers examine most closely.
Manufacturing Process
Clary sage is harvested at flowering, when the surface resin content of the calyx is at its highest. The essential oil is first taken off by steam distillation, since it is a saleable product in its own right and its removal simplifies the later extraction. The spent plant material, or in some processes the fresh herb directly, is then extracted with a hydrocarbon solvent such as hexane, which dissolves the waxes, pigments and the sclareol bearing resin to give a concrete once the solvent is evaporated.
Sclareol is recovered from the concrete by crystallisation. The concrete is taken up in a warm solvent in which the diterpene is soluble but the waxes are not, or is treated so that the waxes are precipitated and removed by filtration, and the clarified solution is then cooled so that sclareol crystallises. The crystals are centrifuged, washed to remove adhering pigment and mother liquor, and recrystallised as many times as the target assay requires. The purified solid is dried under vacuum, milled or flaked, and packed. The fermentation route replaces the agricultural and extraction steps with a sugar fed yeast culture, after which the product is recovered from the broth by solvent extraction and taken through the same crystallisation and drying train.
