L'ylang-ylang [Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook. f. & Thomson] : une plante à huile essentielle méconnue dans une filière en danger

Abstract

Ylang-ylang [Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook. f. & Thomson]: a barely known essential oil plant in an industry at risk. Cananga odorata is a tropical tree from the Annonaceae family, native of Indonesia. Only the forma genuina can be called ylang-ylang. Nowadays, it is mainly cultivated in the Indian Ocean Islands in order to extract the ylang-ylang essential oil for the cosmetic industry. Ylang-ylang develops on many types of soils, under high temperatures and average precipitations of 1,500 mm per year. The pollarding, the maintenance, the elimination of water sprouts and the weeding must be performed to insure a high flower yield and facilitate harvesting. Flower harvest takes place all year long but flowers and essential oils yields are higher during the dry season. Mature and fresh flowers are then distillated and fractionated to obtain essential oil. Generated incomes are important for the economy of the three main producers: Union of Comoros, Madagascar and Mayotte. However, this plant is still poorly known despite its great economic value. This lack of information is a bottleneck for solving the ylang-ylang industry problems which endanger it. Moreover, there is no improvement program of this plant despite the high added value of its essential oil, probably due to the fact that its reproduction biology is far from being known. A thorough study of the plant and its essential oil could generate information necessary to solve the aforementioned problems, maintain and develop the ylang-ylang industry