Common name: Ambrette

Ambrette is an Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) relative that originated in India and is cultivated for its seed, which yields a valuable essential oil.

The main centres of cultivation are its native India, the Seychelles, Nosy Be in Madagascar, El Salvador in Central America, Martinique in the Caribbean, and Ecuador and Colombia in South America.

An annual undershrub, it is typically 1 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 ft) tall, with an erect, semi-woody main stem and slender stems branching all around, all of which are covered in fine hairs.

Leaves are deep green, large, up to 20 cm (8 in) long and even wider, varying in shape but usually palmate with shallow or deep lobes, toothed margins and coated with fine hairs.

The flowers are hibiscus-like with yellow petals and purple centres. They are followed by five-ridged seedpods, similar in appearance to okra but shorter and wider and, like other parts of the plant, are finely haired. When mature, they contain many small, greyish-red, sometimes greenish, flat kidney-shaped seeds.

Flower

Material uses

Essential oil - An essential oil traded as 'Musk oil' or 'Ambrette Seed Oil' is extracted from the seed and is traditionally obtained by steam distilling the whole or crushed seed. However, distillation is slowly being replaced by new supercritical carbon dioxide extraction technology, which allows extraction at lower temperatures with less damage to the oil. It is a clear, light-to-dark yellow liquid with a distinctive, long-lasting floral-musky, wine- or brandy-like aroma and flavour.

Seed production in commercial operations averages around 900 kg per hectare per season; with an oil content of 0.2% to 0.6%, yields range from 1.8 to 5.4 kg of oil per hectare, equivalent to 1.6 to 4.8 lb of oil per acre.

Natural fragrance - The oil is highly valued as a natural fragrance in perfumery, including in high-quality men's fragrances such as 'L'Égoïste' by Chanel and 'Heaven' by Chopard.

Edible uses

Natural flavouring - The oil is also valued as a natural flavouring for various products, including chewing tobacco, alcoholic beverages such as liqueurs, vermouth, and bitters, and some baked goods and sweets. Tinctures, or water-based liquid extracts, are also prepared from the seed and used in combination with the oil for this purpose.

Health uses

Traditional medicine - The seed has value in traditional Indian (Ayurvedic) medicine for preparations used to treat stomach and urinary ailments, as well as nervous debility. In Chinese medicine, they are used to treat headaches.

Climate

Grows naturally in humid subtropical and tropical lowland to mid-elevation climates, generally areas with annual lows of 13 to 25°C, annual highs of 23 to 35°C and annual rainfall of 800 to 2500 mm.

Growing

Ambrette is grown from seed sown in prepared soil at the start of the rainy season. The plants are then tended until they flower and develop fruit, about four to five months after sowing.

Growth performance and disease resistance are best on free-draining loam, sandy loam, and loamy sand soils that are mildly acid to slightly alkaline, generally with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5, and on sites with full sun exposure.

The seedpods are harvested when mature and beginning to turn from green to brown. They are then strewn on a flat, hard surface in the shade and left to dry until they split open and release their seed. Afterwards, the seeds are either collected for processing or bagged for shipment to a processing facility.

Problem features

Each plant bears many seedpods, each containing many small, viable seeds that are easily dispersed when the seedpod matures and splits open. It is recorded as an invasive species in at least one reference publication, a term reserved for the most serious weeds of the environment and agriculture.

The fine hairs on the plant and seedpods irritate some people's skin.

Books

• Adams, C. D. 1972, Flowering plants of Jamaica, University of the West Indies, Mona, Greater Kingston

• Dastur, J. F. 1964, Useful plants of India and Pakistan : a popular handbook of trees and plants of industrial, economic, and commercial utility, 2nd ed., D. B. Taraporevala Sons, Bombay

• Farooqi, A. A. & Sreeramu, B. S. 2004, Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic crops, Hyderabad University Press, Hyderabad

• Fawcett, W. 1891, Economic plants, An index to economic products of the vegetable kingdom in Jamaica, Jamaica Government Printing Establishment, Kingston

• Groom, N. 1997, The new perfume handbook, 2nd ed., Blackie Academic & Professional, London

• Guenther, E. & Althausen, D. 1948 to 1952, The essential oils (6 volumes), Van Nostrand Publishing, New York

• Khan, I. A. & Abourashed, E. A. 2010, Leung's encyclopedia of common natural ingredients : used in food, drugs and cosmetics, 3rd edition, Wiley Publishing, Hoboken, New Jersey

• National Research Council (Board on Science and Technology for International Development) 2006, Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables, The National Academies Press, Washington D.C.

• Oyen, L. P. A. & Nguyen X. D. 1999, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA) 19 : Essential-oil plants, Backhuys Publishers, Leiden

• Parrotta, J. A. 2001, Healing plants of peninsular India, CABI Publishing, Wallingford, Oxfordshire

• Randall, R. P. 2002, A global compendium of weeds, R.G. and F.J. Richardson Press, Melbourne

• Roecklein, J. C & Leung, P.S. 1987, A Profile of economic plants, Transaction Books, New Brunswick, New Jersey

• Seidemann, J. 2005, World spice plants: economic usage botany taxonomy, Springer-Verlag, Berlin