Intensely sweet, medicinal wintergreen — dominated by methyl salicylate, giving a familiar candy-like minty character with a cooling, almost antiseptic edge. Rooty, slightly balsamic undertone develops with time.AI · claude-opus-4-7
Composition, IFRA restriction figures, allergen concentrations and where this material is bought are part of Perfume Foundry’s curated library and need an account. Create one or sign in.
Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, page 399.
Wintergreen oil is a pale yellow to yellowish or pinkish colored liquid.
Wintergreen oil has an intensely sweet-aromatic odor and flavor, often displaying a peculiar creamy-fruity topnote and a sweet-woody dryout which may have a tarlike note in poorly distilled oils.
Methyl salicylate is useful in perfumery where traces of this powerful odorant can add natural notes to ylang-ylang, tuberose, narcissus, lily, gardenia, etc. and it is used frequently in fougéres and other forest notes.
The suggested use level in finished flavored goods is about 0.20 to 0.50 mg%.
The oil is derived by water distillation of the leaves of Gaultheria procumbens, a small plant of the heather family. Prior to distillation, the leaves are exposed to enzymatic action in warm water.