The South American Shelf
Oshadhi
Materia Aromatica · Latin America Edition
The South American Shelf
Resins, balsams and Amazonian distillates
Countries
Brazil · Peru
El Salvador
Plant Family
Burseraceae
resins
Headlines
Palo Santo
Breu Branco
Character
Resinous
balsamic
A continent of resins, balsams and Amazonian distillates. Some lines we hold in depth, distilled across multiple harvests with growers we have worked with for years. Others are vintage parcels — a single distillation, a single season. This is the South American shelf as it stands today at Oshadhi.
01 · Brazil
The Amazonian resin family
Three latitudes of sunlight, three families of essential oil — the citrus oils of the warm sub-tropics, the conifer oils of the cold north, and the resin oils of the equatorial belt. Frankincense, Myrrh, Copaiba, Breu Branco, Peru Balsam all belong to that third group. Brazil’s shelf is built around it.
Breu Branco · Protium heptaphyllum
A large Amazonian tree of the Burseraceae family. The white aromatic resin carries through the forest before you reach the trunk. Distilled from the resin exactly as Frankincense is. GC shows roughly 80–85% similarity to Old World Frankincense, same botanical family. Indigenous Amazonian elders burn the resin when passing tribal knowledge to the young — the smoke is said to open the door of memory.
Copaiba · Copaifera officinalis
The other Amazonian resin oil. Distilled from the oleoresin of a 25 to 40 metre rainforest tree. β-caryophyllene-dominant — the sesquiterpene that has put Copaiba on the clinical aromatherapy map. A peppery-green base note with a soft balsamic underbelly. Grounds a blend without dominating it.
Tonka · Dipteryx odorata
In Brazil the tree is called Cumaru. In French perfumery the same bean has been called Tonka for two hundred years, traded as a fixative absolute. Coumarin-rich. Sweet hay, almond, tobacco.
Vassoura & Cordia
Baccharis dracunculifolia — Brazilian green broom, the plant that gives green propolis its chemistry. Cordia verbenacea — a coastal Atlantic-forest shrub, vintage parcel, warm and green-tea-herbal.
“We can call Breu the Brazilian Frankincense. They belong to the same botanical family, both have this traditional use in religious rituals, and the chromatography of both plants is very similar — like 80, 85 percent similar.”
— Yano Berlander, on the Oshadhi channel
02 · Peru
The tree that perfumes the axe that wounds
Palo Santo is the headline — Bursera graveolens, the same Burseraceae family as Breu Branco, Frankincense and Myrrh. Indigenous Ecuadorians call it the tree that perfumes the axe that wounds. The tree lives up to 100 years of slow growth, falls naturally, and then lies untouched on the forest floor for another ten years before the resin matures inside the deadfall — what Malte Hozzel calls a manifold self-distillation. The oil cannot be hurried. Licensed harvest only, fallen wood only.
Rosewood · Aniba rosaeodora
CITES-listed. An evergreen Lauraceae tree, around 30 metres tall, indigenous to Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Suriname and French Guiana. Linalool-dominant, with geraniol, nerol, citronellol and pinene. Malte Hozzel describes it as the capacity to soften an irritated atmosphere and build bridges between poles of separation — the perfumer’s bridge oil.
Dragon Blood · Croton lechleri
The deep red resin of an Amazonian Croton, used by Peruvian and Ecuadorian Shipibo healers for centuries. Earthy, dark, faintly tannic, almost wine-like.
Muña · Minthostachys mollis
The mint of the Andes, growing between 2,500 and 4,000 metres. A distinct species from European peppermint, with its own pulegone-menthone chemistry.
Ambrette · Hibiscus abelmoschus
The botanical musk. Seed-distilled, macrocyclic-lactone bearing — a vegetal alternative to animal musks, prized by natural perfumers for its warm, fatty, slightly cognac-like depth.
03 · El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay
The balm with the name of the wrong country
One of history’s geographic accidents. Peru Balsam is harvested almost entirely in El Salvador, shipped historically through Peruvian ports, and named for the port rather than the source. The tree is Myroxylon balsamum. The balm bears the name of the wrong country, and connoisseurs have known this for two centuries.
Mexico · the deserts
From the Mexican deserts and Baja California, Turnera diffusa — Damiana. Warm, slightly bitter-sweet, herbaceous. Alongside Lippia graveolens, the carvacrol-dominant Mexican oregano — Verbenaceae, not Mediterranean Origanum.
Paraguay · the carrier shelf
Salvia hispanica — Chia carrier oil, alongside Aloe barbadensis. The forest does not separate trunk from fruit, and neither does the range.
04 · The range
The headline oils, in stock now
No. 1204
Frankincense, Brazil (Breu Branco)
Protium heptaphyllum · 5ml
The Amazonian Frankincense. ~80–85% GC similarity to the Old World oil.
Copaiba
Copaiba, organic
Copaifera officinalis · 10ml
β-caryophyllene dominant. The grounding base note.
Palo Santo
Palo Santo, wild-harvested
Bursera graveolens · 5ml
Licensed harvest, fallen wood only. Peru.
Rosewood
Rosewood, Brazil
Aniba rosaeodora · 10ml
CITES. The perfumer’s bridge oil.
Tonka
Tonka Absolute
Dipteryx odorata · 3ml
Cumaru in Brazil. Coumarin-rich. Sweet hay, almond, tobacco.
Peru Balm
Peru Balm, natural
Myroxylon balsamum · 10ml
El Salvador. Vanillic-balsamic classical base note.
Smaller parcels
Vassoura · Cordia · Dragon Blood
Brazil & Peru · 5ml each
Brazilian green broom. Atlantic-forest Cordia. Shipibo-lineage Dragon Blood.
The continental carrier shelf
Cocoa Butter · Babassu · Chia · Aloe
Brazil & Paraguay
Theobroma cacao, Orbignya oleifera, Salvia hispanica, Aloe barbadensis.