Linalool
Also written linalol, linalool (floral)
Quick answer
The floral, faintly citrus terpenoid found in more spices in this catalogue than any other single aroma compound — and the reason coriander leaf and coriander seed, from one plant, smell like different ingredients.
What it does
Linalool is soft, floral and sweet, with a woody undertone — the smell most associated with lavender, and present in coriander seed, basil, bay, thyme, savory, cardamom and true cinnamon. Where it dominates, as in coriander seed and lavender, the spice reads as perfumed. Where it supports, it rounds off harder aromatics and makes a smell read as pleasant rather than merely strong. It is one of the compounds a substantial minority of people perceive quite differently, which is part of why coriander is the most divisive herb in cooking — though the notorious soapy perception is attributed to aldehydes in the leaf rather than to linalool.
How it behaves when cooked
Four properties of the molecule, and what they mean at the stove.
- Volatility
- high
- Fat solubility
- high
- Water solubility
- moderate
- Heat stability
- low
Linalool is volatile and heat-sensitive, and it oxidises readily, so it is among the first things a spice loses. In coriander seed this produces one of the most useful facts in the catalogue: gentle toasting develops the seed’s warm, nutty character while driving off much of the linalool, so toasted and untoasted coriander are genuinely different spices and a recipe that specifies one is not indifferent to the other. In lavender the same volatility is why culinary lavender is added at the end or infused briefly and then removed — cooked lavender turns soapy and medicinal as the linalool goes and the camphor behind it remains. Its partial water solubility, unusual among terpenes, is why lavender and coriander seed infuse acceptably into syrups and creams where a purely fat-soluble aromatic would not.
Spices that carry it
Recorded on the compound rather than on each spice, so the two cannot disagree.
- Coriander seedPrincipal component
- KoseretPrincipal component
Dominant in the oil of the cultivated culinary form and absent from the wild plant — a compound selected for, and the source of koseret’s floral softness.
- LavenderPrincipal component
- BasilMajor component
- Tej pattaMajor component
Nearly half — 47 per cent — of a leaf oil distilled from Bangladeshi market leaves. Himalayan leaf extracts analysed by HPLC were led by cinnamaldehyde, and the leaf varies by origin.
- TimurMajor component
The floral note that sets the Himalayan species apart from the red Sichuan pepper, and a larger share of its aroma than in any other Zanthoxylum here.
- Bay leafContributing component
- Green cardamomContributing component
- Cinnamon (Ceylon)Contributing component
- Coriander leafContributing component
The leaf and the seed come from one plant and share little of their aromatic profile: the seed is linalool-led and warm, the leaf is dominated by aldehydes and reads as green and pungent. This is why they are not substitutes in either direction.
- Makrut lime leafContributing component
- MakwaenContributing component
- MasticContributing component
- SanshoContributing component
- SavoryContributing component
- Sichuan pepperContributing component
- ThymeContributing component
- YuzuContributing component
A trace by quantity and one of the most aroma-active compounds in the peel oil — the floral note that separates yuzu from lemon.
What cooking and processing were measured to do to it
Findings from studies in which this compound was followed through heat, fat, water, drying or storage. Each belongs to its study and its conditions.
Frying and blooming in fat · Extracts Linalool, β-Myrcene, γ-Terpinene, Eucalyptol (1,8-cineole), Terpinen-4-ol, Linalyl acetate, Furfural, (E,E)-2,4-Heptadienal, volatile oil
In oil fried with Sichuan pepper, thirteen compounds were identified as the key contributors to aroma, and eleven of them came from the spice: terpenes and terpene alcohols including β-myrcene, γ-terpinene, eucalyptol, linalool, terpinen-4-ol and linalyl acetate, which carried the herbal, piney and citrus notes. Only two, (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal and furfural, were made in the frying, by oxidation of the oil and browning reactions; these carried the fatty and roasted notes.
Conditions: in oil or fat · Fried huajiao oil compared with raw and roasted Sichuan pepper and with heated rapeseed oil
A fried Sichuan pepper oil is chiefly the spice’s own aroma moved into fat, with a small roasted contribution from the heated oil. This is a different balance from chilli oil, where the pour makes much of the aroma.
What this does not show: Read in the abstract only, which gives no frying temperature or time. One oil and one preparation, and the tingling compounds were not part of the study.
Measured on the spice
Drying · Decreases Eugenol, Linalool, methyleugenol, eucalyptol (1,8-cineole), volatile oil, drying time
Fresh sweet basil held 32.1 g of volatiles per kilogram, with methyleugenol, eugenol, eucalyptol and linalool the main components. Both convective and vacuum-microwave drying brought the total down to 14.4 g/kg, less than half. Convective pre-drying at 40 °C followed by a vacuum-microwave finish at 360 W kept 16.7 g/kg and gave dried basil in which a panel still found strong fresh and floral notes.
Conditions: Combined method at 40 °C and 360 W · About 250 min for the combined method
What this does not show: Read in the abstract only. The best method still lost about half of the volatiles, and the abstract does not say which compounds were lost most.
Measured on the spice
Drying · Depends on conditions Linalool, Eugenol, volatile oil
Of three ways of drying basil, air drying at room temperature brought about only small losses of volatile components, while oven drying at 45 °C and freeze-drying both decreased the total considerably. Linalool was the major component, followed by eugenol. The odour changed in kind as well as strength: fresh basil was described as fresh, herbaceous and floral, the dried samples as mentholated, spicy, hay-like and earthy.
Conditions: in air · Oven at 45 °C; air at room temperature; freeze-drying
What this does not show: Read in the abstract only, which gives no amounts. Its finding that freeze-drying lost much of the volatiles runs against the common assumption that freeze-drying preserves aroma best, and other studies of other basils may differ.
Measured on the spice
Drying · Depends on conditions Linalool, 1,8-cineole, methyl cinnamate, anthocyanins, total phenolics, volatile oil, colour
Across fresh and dried leaves of a purple basil, the three main volatiles spanned very wide ranges: linalool from 81.19 to 1176.09 µg per gram of dry weight, 1,8-cineole from 45.15 to 816.16 µg/g and methyl cinnamate from 13.20 to 637.65 µg/g. The drying method changed the composition of the volatiles significantly, and microwave drying gave a profile distinct from the others. Raising the convective drying temperature lowered anthocyanin content, whereas raising the microwave power raised it.
Conditions: Convective drying at 45, 50 and 55 °C; microwave at 350, 460 and 600 W · Also freeze-drying and sun-drying; Arapgir purple basil
What this does not show: Read in the abstract and conclusions only. The abstract gives ranges across all samples and does not say which method produced which value, so no ranking of methods is taken from it.
Measured on the spice
Not to be confused with
Compounds a reader is likely to take for this one, and why they differ.
1,8-Cineole
The same molecular formula — C10H18O — and one smells floral while the other smells of eucalyptus lozenges. The pair is the standard demonstration that a molecular formula predicts nothing about aroma.
Questions this page answers
- what is linalool
- what does linalool do
- which spices contain linalool
- what is linalol