On the hunt for Scentless Ben

[Guest guest]

No, it's not a man, and if he was, I guess he'd be like the killer in

Perfume, the book/movie.

 

Oil of Ben or " Benh " is Moringa oleifera is loved for its many useful

properties, not the least of which is its use as an extraction medium

for flower scent in enfleurage. It has been used for this purpose, and

as a perfume base, since the time of the Egyptians. The seed oil can

also be used for cooking and lubrication and other purposes. It is

believed to never go rancid, but I can't comment on that.

 

So I was rereading a bit of Piesse the other day and he comments on the

" inodorous " Behn oil from Jamaica and notes its use as an enfleurage

medium. A few years ago I got some scentless Ben oil from a NP group

member who was importing it. The next batch had a noticibly nutty scent,

unusuable for perfumery. Then a friend in Hawaii was considering opening

a store at the time (2005?) and she got a horrid stinky batch from a

dealer in the US.

 

All this came to mind this past week when I was speaking with Steve, a

group member and he was trying to source Ben oil, and he mentioned he

got a particularly stinky one, and I popped up with the name of the US

supplier and he said, yes, that was from them.

 

We don't mention supplier on this list because of the history of the

group being used as a marketing tool for unscrupulous sellers, but I

think it would be good to open up a discussion on sourcing good Ben oil.

Scentless Ben - our hero ;-)

 

Many, many countries are now producing Ben oil - up from just a few

sources a scant few years ago.

 

If we use the power of the numbers in this group, and y'all go out and

source/sample various Ben oils, perhaps we can come up with a scrupulous

source that has the scentless stuff we can use.

 

I guess we can start by googling moringa seed oil or ben oil.

 

 

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