The name galbanum may bring to mind a scent reminiscent of green leaves and resin. Yet not everything in a perfumery ingredient enters the air and reaches our noses in the same way.
Marine Canton and colleagues, in a study published in 2025, separated galbanum resinoid into volatile and less volatile fractions. Their particular aim was to identify the major compounds in the previously little-studied non-volatile fraction and establish a foundation for future ecotoxicity assessments.
An ingredient extracted from resin, not an essential oil
The study examined galbanum derived from Ferula galbaniflua, a plant in the Apiaceae family. A resinoid is a fragrance ingredient obtained by solvent extraction of resin collected by making incisions in the lower stem. Its production method and composition differ from those of an essential oil obtained by distilling plant material with water or steam.
The team distilled this resinoid under reduced pressure, cooling and collecting the volatile material that emerged and separating it from the non-volatile residue. In two distillations, approximately two-thirds of the starting sample remained as the non-volatile fraction.
Without examining such a substantial fraction, the composition of the fragrance ingredient cannot be adequately understood. The authors included it in their analysis because compounds that do not readily enter the air may still, depending on their properties, influence the exposure and responses of organisms in the environment. The study did not actually measure toxicity in organisms.
The most abundant volatile compound is not necessarily the main contributor to smell
The volatile fraction was examined using gas chromatography to separate its compounds and mass spectrometry to characterize their molecules. The main compounds were β-pinene, bulnesol, and guaiol. β-Pinene accounted for approximately one-quarter of the detected peak area.
This is a relative proportion of the analytical signal within the volatile fraction. It does not mean that one-quarter of the whole resinoid is β-pinene, or that the compound accounts for one-quarter of the scent. A compound’s contribution to smell depends not only on its amount but also on how low a concentration people can detect. This study did not include sensory evaluation in which people smelled the material to establish those contributions.
Moreover, this volatile fraction was separated by dry distillation of the resinoid. The authors likewise note that it cannot be treated as identical to galbanum essential oil obtained by conventional hydrodistillation or steam distillation.
Separating the less volatile fraction to establish molecular structures
The non-volatile fraction was examined by liquid chromatography. Compounds were carried through the system in a liquid and separated, and several kinds of information, including ultraviolet absorption and mass, provided clues to the major constituents. Coumarin-related compounds sharing a structural motif emerged as the principal targets for analysis.
Similar clues alone, however, do not establish a molecular structure. Because many of the compounds needed as reference standards were not commercially available, the researchers isolated constituents from the sample and used nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, to examine how their atoms were connected.
Of the six collected fractions, five were analyzed as single major compounds, while the remaining fraction contained a mixture of two compounds. Seven structures were established in total, including galbanic acid, farnesiferol A, and gummosin. The team did not obtain all seven as separate, pure samples.
From identifying compounds to measuring their amounts
Next, the isolated compounds and other reference material were used to determine the relationship between concentration and analytical signal. Those relationships were then used to calculate amounts in the original resinoid and its non-volatile fraction. Including umbelliferone, separately confirmed against a commercial standard, eight compounds were quantified.
Galbanic acid was the most abundant of the quantified compounds, with farnesiferol A among the other major constituents. Umbelliferone was present in a small amount. The value lies not merely in listing names but in obtaining quantitative information that can be compared with other samples and future test results.
However, the substances surrounding a compound in a reference sample differ from those in the actual resinoid. The authors acknowledge that this difference can affect measurement accuracy. The study also examined the major compounds in detail, rather than identifying every trace constituent of the ingredient.
Conclusion
Understanding galbanum required looking not only at the fraction that evaporates as scent but also at the substantial non-volatile portion left in the material. By separating the two and combining analytical methods suited to each, this study demonstrated an approach to investigating the structures and amounts of the major constituents.
It did not discover a formulation that smells better or a way to improve fragrance longevity. Instead, it clarified how a complex natural mixture can be described in terms of which compounds it contains and in what amounts, helping future ecotoxicity tests to be designed and interpreted. Identifying compounds is distinct from establishing safety or medicinal efficacy; those assessments remain for a later stage.
The raw material was supplied by the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM), and KREATiS participated in the research design. The work received support from Université Côte d’Azur, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and French government research funding. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
References
Canton, M., Thierry, M., Larras, F., Bicherel, P., Mata, L., Delpit, N., Lapczynski, A., Thomas, P., & Antoniotti, S. (2025). Chemical Profiling of Volatile and Non-Volatile Fractions of Galbanum (Ferula galbaniflua Boiss.) Used in Perfumery. Chemistry & Biodiversity, 22(12), e01442. DOI: 10.1002/cbdv.202501442 / Full text. Original article: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
