The drawing: calamus, fresh rhizomeThe drawing: calamus, dried rhizome pieces
Calamus

Ingredients · Herbs & lavender · dry-down

Calamus oil

Say itKAL-uh-mus oil

Warm and sweet like wet cake dough, with a woody, leathery-suede side.

What it is
Natural oil from steam-distilled rhizome of sweet flag, Acorus calamus, a wetland plant of Asia, Europe and North America.
When you smell it
Dry-down: what stays.
What perfumers do with it
A warm, woody-leathery accent; its asarone keeps the dose very low.
Worth knowing
The United States banned calamus and its oil from food in 1968.
Rules
Limited. The oil can be up to 75% beta-asarone; IFRA's standard on cis- and trans-asarone (2006) is listed as a prohibition and a restriction
Also called
Sweet flag oil; Acorus calamus rhizome oil