Rosewood

History

Rosewood entered Western perfumery in the early twentieth century, when French houses began industrial distillation of Amazonian wood for its high linalool content. The trade scaled up from the 1920s onward, when Roure, Robertet and Givaudan opened steam distilleries in the Amazon basin to supply the French perfumery industry with a natural, rose-tinged linalool source (Wikipedia: Aniba rosaeodora; CITES Secretariat, accessed 26 May 2026).

From the 1920s to the 1970s the material anchored a generation of French perfumery compositions. Ernest Daltroff used rosewood in the base of Nuit de Noel for Caron in 1922. Edmond Roudnitska built it into Femme for Rochas in 1944 and again into Eau Sauvage for Dior in 1966, where it sits in the heart with bergamot, jasmine and the hedione that Roudnitska helped popularize. By the late twentieth century the floral-woody fougere palette had become inseparable from the linalool signature of Aniba rosaeodora (Fragrantica: Rosewood; Now Smell This, accessed 26 May 2026).

Heavy felling for both perfumery and furniture decimated wild Amazonian populations through the 1980s and 1990s. The species was added to CITES Appendix II at the 15th Conference of the Parties in March 2010, with the listing effective 23 June 2010, and it sits as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Industrial reformulation accelerated through the 2000s and 2010s, with ho wood and synthetic linalool replacing rosewood across most commercial fragrances; a small certified leaf-and-twig distillation industry was developed in Amazonas (Brazil) from 2005 onward to supply the residual niche demand (CITES Secretariat, Notification 2010/021; IUCN Red List, accessed 26 May 2026).

Botanical and geographic origin

Rosewood is the perfumery name for Aniba rosaeodora, an evergreen tree of the Lauraceae family, a cousin of laurel, cinnamon and avocado. The species grows naturally only in the primary Amazon rainforest, reaching up to thirty meters in height and one meter in trunk diameter. Its reddish heartwood is densely aromatic, with a rose-like, slightly peppery odor that gave the tree both its French name bois de rose and its Brazilian Portuguese name pau-rosa (Wikipedia: Aniba rosaeodora; The Plant List, accessed 26 May 2026).

The historic range covers six countries of the Amazon basin: Brazil (states of Amazonas, Para and Amapa), Peru (Loreto region), French Guiana, Suriname, Colombia and Ecuador. Brazil has historically been the main producer, with the Amazonas state at the center of distillation. The IUCN classifies the species as Endangered on its Red List; the standing wild population has dropped sharply since the 1960s through felling for essential oil and timber (IUCN Red List; CITES Secretariat, accessed 26 May 2026).

Since 2010, all international trade in Aniba rosaeodora, its wood and its essential oil requires a CITES Appendix II permit issued by the exporting country, with proof of non-detrimental harvest. The Brazilian regulator IBAMA caps annual legal production at a small fraction of mid-twentieth-century volumes. A community-led FSC-certified plantation program was launched from the mid-2000s in the municipality of Maues (Amazonas, Brazil), distilling leaves and twigs rather than the heartwood, which avoids felling the tree. This sustainable route now supplies a measurable share of the certified market, but does not match historic industrial demand (CITES Secretariat; FSC Brazil project reports, accessed 26 May 2026).

Production and extraction

Rosewood essential oil is obtained by hydrodistillation or steam distillation of the chipped heartwood, branches and bark of Aniba rosaeodora. Historic industrial yields were in the order of 0.8 to 1.2 percent by weight of raw wood, which made the natural material a moderately priced workhorse for most of the twentieth century. A mature tree requires roughly 80 to 100 years to reach the trunk diameter at which heartwood-based distillation becomes economical, which is the root cause of the resource collapse (Wikipedia: Aniba rosaeodora; Steffen Arctander, Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, accessed 26 May 2026).

The modern sustainable route distills leaves and twigs from FSC-certified plantations in Amazonas (Brazil), introduced from the mid-2000s. Trees aged four to ten years are pruned without felling, yielding around 0.4 to 0.7 percent of essential oil with a slightly greener, fresher profile than heartwood material. The resulting oil is sold under CITES export permits with full traceability documentation, mainly to French and Swiss perfumery raw-material brokers (FSC Brazil project reports; CITES Secretariat, accessed 26 May 2026).

The dominant active compound is linalool, a monoterpene alcohol that accounts for roughly 80 to 90 percent of the essential oil. Trace constituents include alpha-terpineol, geraniol, neral, methylheptenone and small amounts of nerolidol, which collectively give the natural oil a creamier, rounder profile than synthetic linalool alone. The CAS registry number for rosewood Brazilian essential oil is 8015-77-8, and IFRA tracks the material under its standards for linalool-rich naturals (Steffen Arctander; The Good Scents Company; IFRA Standards index, accessed 26 May 2026).

Three industrial substitutes now cover most of the commercial demand once filled by rosewood. The first is ho wood essential oil, distilled from Cinnamomum camphora var. linaloolifera in southern China and Taiwan; its profile is comparable, with a slightly more camphoraceous and less floral facet. The second is coriander seed oil (Coriandrum sativum), with a fresher, more peppery character. The third and largest by volume is synthetic linalool, mass-produced since the late 1920s by chemical routes from beta-pinene or from acetylene, and increasingly supplied today by biotech fermentation through suppliers such as Isobionics (BASF group) and Givaudan technical lines (Givaudan technical literature; Isobionics product sheets, accessed 26 May 2026).

Wholesale prices for CITES-certified rosewood essential oil run between roughly 450 and 800 euros per kilogram in 2025-2026, depending on grade, traceability and origin, with leaf distillates at the lower end. Synthetic linalool sits at a small fraction of that level, which explains why most labels listing rosewood today refer to a substitute rather than to Aniba rosaeodora oil itself (perfumery trade press; Robertet and Mane technical sales documentation, accessed 26 May 2026).

Olfactive profile

Rosewood reads as a soft floral-woody material with a clear three-act structure on a blotter. The opening is rose-tinged, fresh, lightly camphoraceous, driven by the dominant linalool. The heart settles into a sweet, peppery, slightly creamy wood with traces of geraniol and neral. The drydown is a powdery, warm, persistent base that holds for four to six hours on skin (Fragrantica: Rosewood; Steffen Arctander; The Good Scents Company, accessed 26 May 2026).

The natural oil carries a roundness that synthetic linalool alone does not deliver, due to trace alpha-terpineol, geraniol and nerolidol. That roundness made rosewood the favorite linalool source of French perfumery from the 1920s to the 1980s, and explains its place in the floral-woody, fougere and modern citrus accords of the twentieth century. The material sits naturally between the woody, floral and fougere families, and pairs especially well with bergamot, jasmine, neroli, iris, sandalwood and lavender.

Rosewood is the floral linalool of the twentieth century, the soft wood beneath the bergamot, the rose hidden inside the fougere. Its loss reshaped half the modern perfumery palette.

Key characteristics

Notable perfumes featuring rosewood

Six compositions chart the role of rosewood across a century of French and international perfumery, from interwar orientals to mid-century classics and contemporary niche references. The selection draws on Fragrantica note attributions, Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This reviews, and house archives where available. Most pre-2010 references would have used genuine Aniba rosaeodora oil; most post-2010 references rely on a substitute (ho wood, synthetic linalool) under the same olfactive label, in line with CITES restrictions.

Frequently asked questions

See also