Brazilian fights for trees - and perfume industry
© 2000 Reuters
December 15, 2000
Story by Shasta Darlington
RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian chemist says he has sniffed out an environmentally friendly solution to a problem ravaging the Amazon rain forest and also plaguing the international perfume industry.
Lauro Barata has found a way to produce perfume oil commercially using the leaves and branches of the "pau rosa," or rosewood, rather than cutting down the rare tree, he told Reuters on Thursday.
"We realized we had to find a market alternative in order to save the pau rosa," Barata said. "This wouldn't have worked 20 years ago, but with public interest in 'green' products rising, I think we can make it happen." Loggers have decimated the Amazon's native rosewoods over the years and slowly pushed them onto the government's list of threatened species.
As early as the 1970s Brazilian scientists discovered the precious oil could be extracted from rosewood leaves but at the time it was not considered economically viable and so the study was set aside - until now.
"There was no environmental or economic incentive," said Barata, also a professor at Campinas State University outside Sao Paulo. "But with the trees disappearing, it became necessary to find a way to put the discovery into practice at a reasonable price." With the help of modern distillation equipment and a grant from the Banco da Amazonia, Barata says he has improved the extraction process. He hopes to complete his study in February and start producing the oil commercially within three years.
Barata says his environmentally friendly perfume oil will cost only a tad more than traditional oil, which goes for between $25 and $35 per kilogram.
The chemical industry already makes a cheaper artificial substance similar to the oil found in the rosewood tree but that has not stopped the tree's demise because many perfume makers refuse to alter their time-honored formulas.
Destruction of rosewoods has fallen sharply from the 1950s when some 22,000 trees were felled each year. But Brazil still destroys almost 2,500 of the trees a year to produce 50 tons of perfume oil.
"The pau rosa is more and more threatened," said Ruy Goes of Greenpeace in Brazil. "Every year it is harder to find them - it is the ideal moment for an alternative." Many perfume makers refuse to disclose whether they use perfume oil from the rosewood tree - allegedly to protect their secret formulas - but in 1997, Chanel had to announce publicly that it only uses "marginal" quantities in its Chanel No. 5 scent to prevent environmentalists from boycotting it.
In the hopes of gaining a commercial sponsor, Barata says he has sent a sample of his perfume oil to one of the major fragrance companies, but he declined to say which one.