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Root extract: brown to dark brown liquid. As an accord: not applicable.
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
N/A — synthetic accord, not a natural extract
Pyramid
Heart
Not a real perfumery extract. When a fragrance lists 'marshmallow,' what you smell is a synthetic accord — ethyl maltol, vanillin, musks — designed to carries the confection, not the marsh plant. The actual Althaea officinal is root smells of damp tea and wet starch. Nobody distils it for perfume.
The actual plant smells of almost nothing. Crush a fresh leaf: faint green, vaguely herbaceous, unremarkable. The root, when dried, has a starchy, tea-like odour — closer to wet cardboard than to confectionery. Headspace analysis confirms the obvious: the volatiles are dominated by straight-chain alkanes (tetradecane, hexadecane) that the human nose barely registers.
The ‘marshmallow’ of perfumery smells nothing like the plant. It is soft, airy, candy-sweet — the olfactory equivalent of spun sugar dissolving on the tongue. Warmer than cotton candy (which leans fruity), less dense than vanilla, more powdery than honey. The accord’s signature is its texture: pillowy, weightless, almost transparent sweetness.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Caramelised sugar puff — ethyl maltol’s fingerprint. Sweet, airy, slightly burnt-sugar edge. No floral, no green, no botanical reference whatsoever.
After a few hours
After a few hours
The sugar note recedes. Powdery musk and a faint vanilla warmth emerge. The texture becomes intimate, soft, barely perceptible. More sensation than scent.
After a few days
After a few days
A clean, faintly sweet musky trace on fabric. Indistinguishable from a generic powdery-musk drydown. The marshmallow identity is gone; what remains is musk and vanillin residue.
The Full Story
Althaea officinalis is a temperate marsh plant native to the coastal wetlands of Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. It is not a perfumery raw material. The root contains 5–35% mucilaginous polysaccharides — useful in cosmetics and traditional medicine, irrelevant to fragrance. TGSC classifies the root extract (CAS 73049-65-7) as ‘not for fragrance use.’ The plant’s volatile profile, analysed by HS-SPME/GC-MS (Ilam Province, Iran, 2022), is dominated by tetradecane (22.5%), alpha-pinene (15.5%), hexadecane (10.5%), 2-hexenal (8.5%), and dodecane (7.3%) — an alkane-heavy, scentless-to-waxy composition with zero perfumery utility.
The Fantasy Accord
When a perfume lists ‘marshmallow’ in its notes, the material is a synthetic accord designed to carries the confection, not the plant. The accord is typically built from ethyl maltol (CAS 4940-11-8, the caramelised-sugar molecule), vanillin or ethyl vanillin, a powdery white musk (often ethylene brassylate or helvetolide), and a trace of benzoin or coumarin for balsamic warmth. Some formulators add heliotrop in (CAS 120-57-0) for a powdery-almond quality. The result is a soft, pillowy sweetness — airy rather than dense — that reads as edible without the heaviness of pure vanilla.
Naming Confusion
The connection between the plant and the confection is historical, not aromatic. French confiseurs of the early 19th century whipped the root’s mucilaginous sap with sugar and egg white to produce pâte de guimauve. By the mid-20th century, gelatin replaced the plant entirely. Modern marshmallows contain no Althaea. The perfumery note, in turn, contains no marshmallow — it is a double remove from the plant that gave it its name.
CAS Clarification
CAS 73049-65-7 corresponds to Althaea officinalis (marshmallow) extracts. CAS 90045-76-4, sometimes erroneously attributed to this entry, belongs to Althaea rosea (hollyhock) — a different species entirely.
Related Notes
See also: Ethyl Maltol, Vanilla, Tonka Bean, Benzoin.
This note in Première Peau. Nuit Elastique · Rose Monotone. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
Did You Know?
Did you know?
The original marshmallow confection was made by whipping the mucilaginous sap of Althaea officinalis root with sugar and egg white, a preparation described in French confiserie texts from at least the early 19th century. Gelatin replaced the root in industrial marshmallow from the late 19th to early 20th century; root versions still exist. Modern marshmallows contain no Althaea. The perfumery 'marshmallow' note, in turn, contains no marshmallow; it is built from ethyl maltol and vanillin, molecules that smell like caramelised sugar, not marsh plants.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: No extraction relevant to perfumery. Althaea officinalis root extract (CAS 73049-65-7) is produced by solvent extraction of the dried root, primarily for cosmetic and flavour applications. TGSC explicitly classifies it as 'not for fragrance use.' The root's value lies in its mucilage content (5-35% polysaccharides), not in volatile aromatics. The plant yields negligible essential oil by steam distillation. Headspace GC-MS analysis of A. officinalis volatiles (Ilam Province, Iran, 2022) identified tetradecane (22.5%), alpha-pinene (15.5%), hexadecane (10.5%), 2-hexenal (8.5%), and dodecane (7.3%) — an unremarkable alkane-dominated profile with no perfumery interest. The 'marshmallow' note in perfumery is a synthetic accord; see perfumery_role.
Molecular Formula
Complex mixture (extract); no single molecular formula
CAS Number
73049-65-7 (Althaea officinalis extract — cosmetic/flavour use only, not for fragrance)
Botanical Name
Althaea officinalis
IFRA Status
Not applicable: marshmallow is a fantasy accord, not a regulated raw material. Among its typical components, only coumarin carries its own IFRA Standard; ethyl maltol and vanillin do not. Althaea officinalis root extract (CAS 73049-65-7) is classified by TGSC as 'not for fragrance use.'
Synonyms
marshmallow, sweetweed
Physical Properties
Odor Strength
Medium
Lasting Power
Depends on accord construction; ethyl maltol component fades within 2-4 hours, musk base persists 24+ hours
Appearance
Root extract: brown to dark brown liquid. As an accord: not applicable.
Specific Gravity
0.94320 to 1.01320 @ 25.00 °C.
Refractive Index
1.36980 to 1.38580 @ 20.00 °C.
In Perfumery
Marshmallow is a fantasy accord, not a raw material. The note is constructed, typically from ethyl maltol (the caramelised-sugar molecule, CAS 4940-11-8), vanillin or ethyl vanillin, a powdery musk (often ethylene brassylate or helvetolide), and a trace of benzoin or coumarin for warmth. Some formulations add heliotrop in for the powdery-almond quality. The accord sits in the heart-to-base register. It functions as a sweetness modifier in gourmand compositions, softening denser notes like chocolate, coffee, or caramel without the cloying density of pure vanillin. In floral-gourmand hybrids, it bridges the gap between edible sweetness and white-floral transparency. The actual plant, Althaea officinal is, contributes nothing to this construction. TGSC lists the root extract as 'not for fragrance use.' Its volatile profile, dominated by tetradecane, alpha-pinene, and hexadecane, bears no relation to the confectionery sweetness the name implies.
