Jasmine

Scientific

Jasminum contains ~200 species in the olive family (Oleaceae). Most cultivated jasmines fall into two species:

• Jasminum officinale — common jasmine, white-flowered, the source of most commercial perfume jasmine
• Jasminum sambac — Arabian jasmine (despite the name, native to South and Southeast Asia), the species used for jasmine tea and South Asian garland-flower traditions

The species’ fragrant compounds — benzyl acetate, indole, methyl jasmonate, linalool — are some of the most-used aromatics in perfumery. Jasmine absolute (extracted by solvent rather than steam distillation, because the volatile compounds are too delicate for steam) is one of the highest-value perfumery raw materials per gram.

Cultural

Jasmine is woven through religious, romantic, and culinary traditions across South and Southeast Asia:

• Hindu temple offerings — white jasmine garlands are standard offerings; women wear them in their hair
• Jasmine tea — green or white tea scented by exposure to fresh jasmine blossoms; the Chinese province of Fujian is the production heartland
• Filipino and Indonesian bridal flowers — sampaguita (Tagalog for J. sambac) is the Philippine national flower
• Persian, Arab, and Levantine perfumery — jasmine is one of the foundational aromatics of the entire regional fragrance tradition

The plant’s English name traces through Latin and Old French from Persian yāsamīn — which also gives the cross-cultural given name (Yasmin, Yasmina, Jasmine, Yasamin, Jazmín) across the Islamic world and beyond.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

• Shares approach with: [[sacred-lotus]] · [[pomegranate]] · [[plumeria]] · [[magnolia]] · [[hyacinth]] · [[honeysuckle]]
• Member of: [[plants]]

Sources

• Wikipedia — Jasminum
• Encyclopedia of Perfumery and Cosmetics (Wiley)

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A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].