Tinkturenpresse

Heliotropium arborescens L. - syn.Heliotropium peruvianum L. - Boraginaceae
(garden) heliotrope, cherry pie, Heliotrop, Vanilleblume, (Strauchige) Sonnenwende

Fragrant evergeen shrub, native to the peruvian Andes. Commonly cultivated as annual herb, sometimes with variegated color of the leaves (violet-green or golden) or flowers (white).

„Flavors of heliotrope flowers were analyzed by Solid Phase Microextraction Method (SPME) equipped with GC-MS. The major volatiles identified were benzaldehyde, benzyl acetate and p-anisaldehyde.“
[Flavors of Heliotrope Flowers, Analyzed by Solid Phase Microextraction Method. Hisano H, Ishimaru K, Tada H, Ikeda Y. Japanese Journal of Food Chemistry 2 (1), 6-8, 1995-10-01]

„The majority of the volatile compounds emanating from the flowers were terpenes (camphene, p-cymene, δ-3-carene, α-humulene, δ-1-limonene, linalool, (E)-β-ocimene, α-pinene, and β-thujone), benzenoids of which benzaldehyde was the most abundant, aldehydes (decanal, heptanal, nonanal and octanal), and hydrocarbons decane, heneicosane, heptadecane, hexadecane, nonadecane, nonane, octadecane, tetradecane, tridecane and undecane) along with a cross-section of other compounds.“
[Volatile Floral Chemistry of Heliotropium arborescens L. ‘Marine’. Stanley J. Kays, Jason Hatch, and Dong Sik Yang, Hort Science 40(5):1237-1238. 2005]
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/40/5/1237.full.pdf

Although heliotropin (or piperonal) resembles the scent of the flowers (as the name says, trade name by 'Haarmann und Reimer', 1878), there is no trace of this compound present in the headspace. Main volatile compounds emitted by the flowers are benzyl alcohol (21.5%), (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol (17.8%), hexanal (14.8%), p-anisaldehyde (11.0%), 2-phenylethanol (7.3%), benzaldehyde (5.3%), (E)-2-hexenal (4.3%), 1-hexanol (4.3%), 3-phenylpropanol (3.3%), and anisyl alcohol (1.1%). There are more than 50 compounds found in concentration below 1%, such as e.g. 2-methyl butanal, 3-methyl butanal, methional, (E,E)-2,4-hexadienal, anisole, 4-ethyl 2-butenolide, methyl salicylate, decanal, (E)-cinnamaldehyde, (E)-cinnamyl alcohol, methyl anisate, vanillin, benzyl isovalerate, benzyl 2-methylbutyrate, methyl eugenol, anisyl acetate, (E)-cinnamyl acetate, 3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde, and 4-oxo-α-ionone.
A dynamic headspace extraction with a PDMS polymer as trapping device showed the major components to be benzaldehyde, p-anisaldehyde, and 2-phenylethanol.
[Heliotropin, heliotrope odor and Tahitian vanilla flavor: the end of a saga?., Joulain, D., Laurent, R., Masson, J., Beolor, J. C., Brevard, H., Natural Product Communications, 2(3), 2007, 305-308.]

Heliotropium arborescens L. [as Heliotropium corymbosum Ruiz & Pavon]
Bonpland, A., Description des plantes rares cultivées à Malmaison et à Navarre, t.32 (1831) [P.J. Redouté]
http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=504397

Heliotropium arborescens, CC BY-SA 3.0, Author: Andreas Kraska