Tagetes Oil Madagascar
The fresh and minty facets of tagetes can easily be used as a top note or in combination with floral notes. The fresh and fruity notes of tagetes essential oil are also very interesting when used with woody accords.
Madagascar is home to several thousand botanical species, both endemic and introduced. One of the introduced species is the tagetes, originally from South America. Known in Madagascar as Mavoadaladia, it is often used as an ornamental in gardens.
Tagetes is a fast-growing annual plant. Its straight stems can grow up to two metres high. They bear narrow, serrated, pointed, khaki green leaves. The part of the plant that contains the essential oil is the flower. These have secretory hairs on the outside of the corolla tube that are full of fragrant molecules.
In Madagascar, it grows in abundance in the Hauts Plateaux, a mountainous region in the centre of the island. On tagetes plantations, farmers start sowing at the beginning of the rainy season, from November to December. By the end of February, the plants have reached full height but are not yet flowering. The first flowers appear in mid-March. Harvesting begins in April when flowering is abundant. This continues until May-June when the plants begin to dry out and produce seeds. Tagetes oil is extracted from the leaves, stems and flowers by steam distillation.
Native to Central America, its seeds were transported along with the hay during the transport of goods and it can now be found on every continent.
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