P&N: What Precisely Does it Mean?

[Bill Roberts]

This question is NOT intended to be particular to one specific case and I would prefer we not discuss that case here (certainly one has the right to though, no dispute there.)

What exactly does P&N (Pure and Natural) mean and what does it guarantee? Is it only an industry term or is there government regulation, particularly in the EU?

I do believe I read a definition once, but definitely it did not speak of regulation, and I cannot find it again and am a little vague on the memory.

One would like to think that it must differ from "Natural" in that Natural can be any mix of substances all extracted or isolated from natural materials, or resulting from accepted biotechnology using such materials as the starting point, while "P&N" would mean that it consists 100% of the named substance. But I am not sure that is really right, and definitely don't know if such would be merely common industry meaning if right, and thus subject to being used differently if a company wished, or whether it is a matter of law.

All I find presently is this:

"Grade#1 100% Pure and Natural (P&N) [the oil as it is produced from the plant materials], These oils are most expensive because nothing has been added to the oil." Nothing is said about whether this is a matter of law and subject to government action if violated, or is merely an industry meaning or perhaps even only a marketing term.

And a marketing claim of a given company comparing their oils to others, does not prove a point but only illustrates a claim that there are fake P&N's, no surprise there: "They must not be confused with the multitude of inferior quality products which are nowadays quite falsely being marketed as "100% Pure & Natural".

If anyone has the facts and can share, thank you!

 

[Bkkorn]

In todays time, I honestly don't know anymore. I would have always thought a P&N material meant something along the lines of "Derived and sourced directly from the single natural material", but quite honestly...this term gets tossed around so loosely that people can easily make a reconstitution of a material using only P&N materials, and call the final end product a "natural".

A good example could be, a true Rose Absolute which is a single solvent extracted P&N product, and the end result is one final material pulled from one source (the real plant/flowers).

On the other hand, one could easily make a "rose accord" using many different P&N single materials, and reconstruct a final single rose type material using only P&N materials to create it,....and call it a P&N product.

Who knows.....its a blurred line.

 

[Bill Roberts]

It seems a key question whether this term is a matter of law / regulation, or is very strongly upheld industry custom where companies would be shocked if others violated it, or is loose industry custom, or is a mere marketing term which people in industry know often includes shall we say creative interpretation such as you illustrated.

Without specific information, right now I have no idea which of these it might be.

When buying from a company such as say Albert Vielle all this is not an issue, I do believe the meaning is as expected with such. But rather it would have to do with global assurances as to what it always must mean, particularly in the EU but also in the US.

 

[Bkkorn]

Personally, I think its a 'marketing term' in the industry, which is why this term is used so heavily recently for to able to sell products that are shown as "P&N" at a more cost effective and attractive price to draw in consumers not knowing the difference between a true single P&N product versus a P&N product made up of many natural isolates.

I don't know if there is a law in place to differentiate the 2 honestly....which again is why I think this term has such a blurred line of separating the 2 to a single end definition of what a P&N product really is, or should mean/be.

I think it comes down to transparency and disclosure from both the distillery/source, and the retailer. A good example is a lot of Robertet products while are surly P&N, he does claim outright on some of his items "blend of natural isolates and materials", letting everyone know this is a material he made up himself (like a base/accord) using all natural materials and makes it clear to the public of what you are getting and how it was made.

Some distillery/source/retailers will not disclose this info however...and just call it a P&N product and not disclose much info in the SDS on what it really is and how it was made, and that makes it harder for us to determine what we are truly getting, even though its a P&N end product.

 

[Bill Roberts]

Actually, that first link I gave has more information than I presented, which I hadn't read at the time as I was looking only for definition and whether law was involved.

Further on it says, bolding added by me at one point,

Grade#1 100% Pure and Natural (P&N) [the oil as it is produced from the plant materials], These oils are most expensive because nothing has been added to the oil.

Grade#2 Near to Natural Oils (NNO) [Adulterated oils with natural components or similar oils which can pass ISO standard, C14 test, physical constants, organoleptic, and chirality]. The most sophisticated means or ingredients formulate these, so it will be less expensive than P&N but more expensive than others.

Grade#3 Reconstituted Oils (RCO) [Combination of natural or synthetic ingredients which can fail C14 test and chirality test but passes ordinary GCMS testing, ISO standard]

Grade#4 Perfume Quality Oils (PQO) [Cheaper similar fragrances are added to mimic the aroma of the original EOs, a trained nose can quickly identify this grade, it fails all the tests of EOs, but some amateur EO users may like the PQO.



Figure 3: Various grades of oils and their market coverage based upon the authors' experience. Analyzing grade#3&4 are more simplified over grade#2.

In my experience, the market has all of the above-mentioned grades of oils, and most often, they are all sold as P&N. It is unfortunate, and many consider this adulteration as a misrepresentation or cheating of the end-user. If sellers are honest about the grade or quality of oil they are selling, I don’t see an issue with the process. It’s much more about being truthful in what is being sold.

During a conversation with a supplier of EOs, he said they all adulterate in undetectable ways, and it's up to you to catch it. The essential oil business is a large chain business considering lab as the point of confirmation, lack of experience in chemistry often is what allows adulterated samples to pass through testing. Brokers often know what lab capabilities are in detecting adulteration and so they apply the adulteration in the grade to pass the tests.

There is considerably more. A good article.

 

[Bill Roberts]

Personally, I think its a 'marketing term' in the industry, which is why this term is used so heavily recently for to able to sell products that are shown as "P&N" at a more cost effective and attractive price to draw in consumers not knowing the difference between a true single P&N product versus a P&N product made up of many natural isolates.

I don't know if there is a law in place to differentiate the 2 honestly....which again is why I think this term has such a blurred line of separating the 2 to a single end definition of what a P&N product really is, or should mean/be.

Thank you. I think you may be right.

It will be much appreciated if any have information to the contrary -- that this is in fact a regulated term in the EU and/or the US and is subject to enforcement action -- or information to confirm!

 

[ourmess]

As far as I know, none of those ("pure", "natural", or "pure & natural") are regulated terms in the US. The only regulation I've seen even tangential to them is for the legal definition of "natural flavoring".

 

[Bill Roberts]

Thank you!

That leaves just the EU then.

?

 

[sorance]

For a user of fragrance, I think is not that important if an ingredient is natural or just a chemical made in the laboratory. The most important thing is whether smells well and doesn't make any harm.

 

[Bill Roberts]

For a person shelling out a lot of money expecting a particular thing and particular performance, or for the perfumer concerned whether his or her product is IFRA compliant or not and therefore needs documentation accurately corresponding to the actual product that is received, it makes a lot of difference if materials are as claimed.

Besides this, those that you or I catch falsely representing to us on one or more things to get more money from us may well be doing so also on other things that we haven't spotted.

Anyway, I don't have an equally cavalier view of misrepresentation. Besides in some cases repros or adulterated products don't smell as they should, either, out of not being what they say and it being a poor job of simulation or of "stretching."

An example would be a bogus Sandalwood I received. It might be that everything in it was natural and was pure when extracted from something, something of some very bland sort, but the stuff was worthless no matter if anyone slapped P&N on it. Actually in that case they didn't, but it's intended as conceptual illustration.

There are also the cases of people and companies selling perfumes or aromatherapy materials which they describe to their customers as being pure and 100% natural and who are very sincere and ethical and it is extremely unfair to such persons to fraudulently sell them adulterated materials and make them, in turn, cheat their customers albeit unknowingly.

 

[Bkkorn]

For a user of fragrance, I think is not that important if an ingredient is natural or just a chemical made in the laboratory. The most important thing is whether smells well and doesn't make any harm.

I think its important if you paid a considerable amount of money to obtain a 'natural absolute', only to find that it wasn't.

If you had a choice to buy:
- Rose Damask Absolute (30ml): $120.00
- Rose Wardia Firmenich (30ml): $55
- Rose P&N Oil (30ml): $70

And then you decided "im gonna splurge and go for the REAL stuff and pay the extra $ to get the Damask Absolute.....only to find that it wasnt a TRUE absolute....you would be pretty upset. It comes down to getting what you paid for (or though you were getting as advertised)

 

[Casper_grassy]

Played & Neglected.

 

[Bkkorn]

Played & Neglected.

P&N = Played & Neglected

LOL!!!!, i legit spit out my coffee readin' this

 

[Casper_grassy]

P&N = Played & Neglected

LOL!!!!, i legit spit out my coffee readin' this

I hope it was something cheap like maxwell house, don't want you to be wasting "some serious gourmet s***" (pulp fiction)!!!