Blue Lotus

Blue Lotus is known to promote a meditative state of mind and also to be an aphrodisiac. 

The absolute is extracted from the true blue Egyptian Lily, Nymphaea caerulea. The fragrance of an authentic absolute is quite faint and will always reflect the many different unsaturated hydrocarbons present in the extract. 

Two of the main constituents of this absolute are unsaturated hydrocarbons. One is 6Z, 9E Heptadecadiene and the other is 8 Heptadecene. While the first double unsaturated component is apparently not commercially available, the latter, 8 Heptadecene is. This is a rare example showing how sometimes authenticity can be supported by analysis--no one would buy this component to adulerate or reconstruct an absolute. The natural product (8 Heptadecene), though quite expensive calculated as a fraction of the whole absolute, is less expensive than the artificial copy from the laboratory. 

While Nelumbo, the Lotus genus (pink and white) is different from Nymphea, the Water Lilly, we claim  artistic license to cite a poem by the Chinese Poet Po shih Ch’ang-ch’ing chi, who writes: 

“Up among the little peaches are the little lotus boats, 

Half picking pink lotuses, half white lotuses; 

Unlikely are evil wind or waves from south of Kiang 

Here at Nelumbo Pool, before the couch on which I lie”

from Aromatherapy Course 4th Edition