Coleonema pulchellum

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Common products:
- Leaf essential oil: extracted from the aerial parts of C. pulchellum for use in the fragrance and flavor industries.
- Ornamental shrubs: cultivated as landscape plants for hedges, borders, and pot‑culture; valued for fine‑textured, aromatic foliage and prolific flowering.
- Dried foliage: sold as pot‑pourri and scented sachets for domestic fragrance.

Industrial and craft applications:
- The essential oil is incorporated into soaps, detergents, and incense as a natural aromatic component.
- Due to its high monoterpene content, the oil serves as a feedstock for the synthesis of fragrance intermediates.

Food and beverages (non‑medicinal):
- No documented culinary uses have been reported for this taxon.

Colorants and tanning:
- No reported use as a dye source or for tanning.

Wood and fiber:
- The plant is a small shrub and does not provide timber or bast fiber of commercial importance.

Fragrance and cosmetics:
- The leaf and stem essential oil is employed in perfumery, often as a top‑note component in fine fragrances and aromatic blends for personal‑care products.
- The oil's scent profile is dominated by 1,8‑cineole, α‑pinene, β‑pinene, limonene and related monoterpenes, which provide a fresh, herbal‑spicy aroma.

Properties relevant to use:
- High concentration of oxygenated monoterpenes (≈ 45 % 1,8‑cineole) confers strong volatility and a characteristic camphor‑like scent.
- The oil’s iodine value and saponification number fall within typical ranges for essential oils used in fragrance (IV ≈ 95 g I₂/100 g; SV ≈ 190 mg KOH/g), supporting its stability and blending compatibility.

Standards and regulation:
- Essential oil derived from C. pulchellum must comply with International Fragrance Association (IFRA) standards for purity and safety.
- In the European Union, the oil is subject to Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, requiring registration of fragrance allergens above threshold concentrations.

Sustainability and sourcing:
- Most commercial material is obtained from cultivated plantations in South Africa and Israel, with wild‑harvesting limited to small, regulated collections.
- Agronomic trials show that C. pulchellum can be harvested repeatedly without significant decline in oil yield, supporting sustainable supply chains.

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No reference genome is available on NCBI yet. We are constantly monitoring for new data.

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