Blue California announced the expansion of its natural flavor and fragrance portfolio of captive ingredients by producing a clean, sustainable nerolidol.

Nerolidol is a rare sesquiterpene alcohol ubiquitous in nature and found in many flowers and plants, particularly in Seville orange flower, also known as Neroli, which gives the aroma chemical its name.

It is recognized for its floral, woody aroma and can also be described as a fresh scent, blending well with citrus, apple, or rose but light enough to complement any type of scent or flavor. Nerolidol is therefore ideal for use in many applications and known for its relaxing effects.

Many brands looking to make products at a large scale using nerolidol find it to be cost-prohibitive and, for that reason, it hasn't been widely used in modern-day product applications.

Yet, consumers seek clean-label fragrance products that are easy on the planet and fit into the clean and conscious fragrance and beauty movement. The Innova Beauty & Personal Care Survey 2020 notes that 51% of global consumers indicate that natural ingredients are very or extremely important to them when purchasing fragrances.

Nerolidol is first in a full range of natural ingredients in the 2022 pipeline of Blue California's Taste, Smell, and Beauty Division. Conagen develops one of the most high-yielding fermentation platforms for producing sesquiterpenes and lactones.

With its functional advantages in many industries due to its moderate polarity and optical activity, nerolidol is also a useful, sustainable fine chemical intermediate.

Until now, synthetic musk was primarily used in the fragrance industry because traditional musk sources were wild plants, too rare to be useful, or wild animals, like musk deer and civet cats, too endangered to be ethical. Conagen and Blue California have teamed together to develop a modern, one-of-a-kind, natural, domestic plant-derived musk that is safe, versatile, and biodegradable.