vettiver – an earthy Aromatic fragrance
thank god, almost everyone, even in Europe people call it vettiver. We visited Grasse, (perfume capital of the world) in France, and I saw vettiver, displayed delicately on a lace, and all inside a glass case. It was labelled vettiver.
vettiver essential oil is used in premium perfumes in France. Especially men perfumes.
on the other hand in tamil villages, people put a three to four roots in the drinking water. It was believed to have so many health benefits. Cools the body. Adds natural minerals. Food was medicine.
unfortunately today almost all vettiver roots are extracted of their essential oil, and exported.
what you get in the market is the oil stripped. The farmers told me. Because it’s a buy back offer from the companies that has the distillation units.
these extracted roots are then made into value added products like mats, and bath scrubs.
even the vettiver scrub that you get in the market, open and see. They will have coconut coir inside. No ethics at all.
as consumers we only have to take informed decisions.
vettiver takes 10 months to grow and harvesting is done through excavators. These roots also prevented soil erosion.
washing them.consumes so much of water and labour.
when a plant is exposed to almost all the seasons, it is bound to have all the goodness of the seasons. Like coconut, turmeric.
we just harvested our second batch in the second year.