Extracting the Scent of Cherry Blossoms

Hello! The end of the rainy season is finally approaching and we are entering the summer season. Plants are growing well even in the hot weather, and cherry blossoms are putting on their green leaves.
Nowadays, in the Sasabe Sakura Reference Room of the Sake Museum, the exhibition titled “Do you know? The Secret of Cherry Blossoms” is being held. This exhibition highlights the charms of cherry blossoms other than their flowers, which are usually overlooked. Easy-to-understand explanatory captions are also offered, so please come with your family.　

One of the charms of cherry blossoms except for flowers is their scent. In Japan, products that has the scent of cherry blossoms are sold as seasonal limited items in spring. What exactly is “the scent of cherry blossoms”?

The scent of cherry blossoms is composed of several aromatic components, the most characteristic of which is coumarin. It has a distinctive sweet smell, the so-called sakura mochi (rice cake wrapped in a pickled cherry blossom leaf) smell.
The scent of cherry blossoms varies in intensity depending on the variety. Someiyoshino cherry blossoms, which are often seen in town, is a variety with a less one. On the other hand, leaves of Ōshimazakura cherry blossoms, one of wild species, has relatively strong scent because they are high in coumarin. So they are usually used for sakura mochi.

Coumarin doesn’t smell in living leaves, but becomes odorous when the cells are broken by salting or drying.

This time, we had experiments with dried leaves of Ōshimazakura cherry blossoms to extract the scene of them.

This jar with strange shape is called a “ranbiki”, an instrument used to distill medicines and alcohol. The has three layers: the bottom round jar holds water, the middle layer holds the substance to be distilled, and the top layer holds water or ice for cooling. The water in the bottom jar is heated and boiled; the vapor rises into the middle layer, where it cools by contact with the undersurface and condenses, running down the spout into the receiver. This mechanism can be used to extract components.

When we experienced using dried and finely cut Ōshimazakura cherry leaves placed in the middle layer, we could obtain distilled water with the smell of cherry blossoms.

We could smell and notice a sweet smell like sakura mochi as well as the smell of the leaves. After distillation, the remained leaves also gave off a strong smell of sakura mochi.
You can experience the scent of cherry blossoms when you dry their leaves. So, please enjoy cherry blossoms even the parts that you can’t see.
Please look forward to the next issue!

*This experiment was conducted with expert and paid attention.