Banana
1 fragrance with this note
Part of accords: Fruity, Sweet, Gourmand, Tropical, Tropical fruit
- Latin name
- Musa acuminata
- Family
- Banana family (Musaceae)
- Origin
- the scent is created in the laboratory
- Parts used
- fruit (as the reference for the scent)
- Raw materials
- fruity accords
- Extraction
- synthesis
- Olfactory group
- fruity, gourmand
- Position in the pyramid
- top note and heart
- Synthetic substitutes
- isoamyl acetate, fruity esters, vanillin
Banana is a tropical fruit whose aroma everyone knows from childhood. In perfumery banana is recreated with a fruity accord — from a fresh, greenish fruit to sweet banana with vanilla.
How it smells: sweet, creamy and warm: ripe flesh, a light vanilla and floral shade, a faintly green peel. Banana sounds playful, cosy and a little tropical.
The familiar banana smell comes from isoamyl acetate — a molecule known as “banana oil”. Similar banana touches are found in ylang-ylang and sambac jasmine flowers, which is why banana pairs so naturally with white flowers.
What it pairs with: with ylang-ylang and jasmine — tropical white-floral compositions, with vanilla and caramel — a “banana dessert”, with coconut — beach exotica, with rum — tropical cocktail fragrances, with sandalwood — a creamy warm base.
Good to know: banana-flavoured sweets do not smell quite like today's bananas; according to a popular theory, they were modelled on the old Gros Michel variety, which almost disappeared in the twentieth century because of a disease.
