CostusAbsolute.com

One root, three generic names

World Flora Online, drawing on the International Compositae Alliance, carries Saussurea costus (Falc.) Lipsch. as the accepted name in the Asteraceae, with Aucklandia costus, Aucklandia lappa, Aplotaxis lappa and Theodorea costus folded in as synonyms.1 Kew’s index dates the combination to 1964 and its basionym to Falconer’s Aucklandia costus of 1841.2 A 2020 molecular study found the allied genus Dolomiaea monophyletic only “after the inclusion of Saussurea costus”,3 and IPNI records the resulting Dolomiaea costus (Falc.) Kasana & A.K.Pandey.4 The CITES database keeps Saussurea costus and lists both Dolomiaea costus and Saussurea lappa as synonyms;5 the fragrance standard still writes Saussurea lappa Clarke.6

Kuṣṭha, and the costus of the ancients

The Sanskrit name is kuṣṭha; one historian of science counts the plant in twenty hymns of the Atharvaveda and writes that it was traded to Assyria and Egypt.7 Hobson-Jobson, the Anglo-Indian glossary, records that Garcia de Orta recognised the trade root as “the Costus of the ancients”, who “took their word from the Skt. kusṭha”.8 Pliny set the root among the productions “held in the very highest estimation in India”, with “a burning taste in the mouth, and a most exquisite odour”, found on the island of Patale at the mouth of the Indus and priced at five denarii a pound. A note in the Bostock and Riley translation records Fée’s doubt that the modern costus is the ancients’ plant.9

From Kashmir slopes to the China run

Species+ gives the range as India and Pakistan.5 Hobson-Jobson calls the trade root, putchock, “a fragrant root, a product of the Himālaya in the vicinity of Kashmīr”, shipped from Bombay and Calcutta to the Malay countries and China: “In the year 1837-38 about 250 tons of this article, valued at £10,000, were exported from Calcutta alone.”8 Wild collection depleted the plant in Kashmir, and a Kuth Act of 1921 made it state property, punishing unlicensed extraction, possession, trade, transport and even cultivation.7 Cultivation began in Himachal Pradesh in 1920 and in Uttarakhand in 1929;10 the Bhuna nursery in Chamoli shipped its whole produce to China through Calcutta until the Second World War stopped that export in 1940.7 The plant still grows wild along the Indo-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir.10

A very peculiar, very persistent odour

Steam distillation of the dried roots gives “a viscous liquid of light brown colour, having a very peculiar and very persistent odour”; the “costus oil” of the same 1981 study was a solvent extract, a separate product.11 A plant-resources handbook puts oil yields at 0.8 to 5.8 per cent depending on method, 1.2 per cent by the common steam route and 6 per cent with petroleum ether, of which the lactonic constituents make up “about 50%”.12 A perfumery reference database files the root oil under odour type “animal” and describes it at full strength as “orris green hairy woody unripe melons”.13 In India the roots also serve the attar industry of Kannauj, and absolutes and concretes are made from them.7

Costunolide and dehydrocostus lactone

Chemical work on costus extracts singles out two sesquiterpene lactones, costunolide and dehydrocostus lactone. Dermatologists’ interest began when facial contact dermatitis was reported in Japanese women, and a 1981 study names the two lactones as the haptens incriminated, with dehydrocostus lactone “the main sensitizer”.11 The reactive part is the α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone group, which binds proteins through a Michael addition; costunolide and dehydrocostus lactone, with alantolactone, make up in equal parts the sesquiterpene lactone mix used as a screening tool in patch tests.14 The 1981 team bound the lactones to a polymer, recovered a “lactone-free” oil, and reported that guinea pigs injected with it could not be sensitised.11

IFRA Standard 124: a prohibition

IFRA Standard 124, Amendment 40, published in 2006 after versions of 1974, 1998 and 2002, covers CAS 8023-88-9 and 90106-55-1. Its recommendation is a prohibition — “Costus root oil, absolute and concrete should not be used as a fragrance ingredient” — and the intrinsic property driving it is dermal sensitisation.6 The IFRA Standards are the fragrance industry’s self-regulatory standards: IFRA’s Code of Practice makes adherence “mandatory for all companies that are members of IFRA”, which “must apply the IFRA Standards”.15 They are an industry code, not a statute; in the United States they are not law. Supplier listings gather costus root oil replacers, “an animalic, leathery, note used to replace the natural Costus Oil”.16 CostusAbsolute.com has no affiliation with IFRA.

EU law: Annex II, entry 1133

In the European Union the rule is law. In 2003 the Commission’s cosmetics committee was asked whether materials IFRA recommends against should enter Annex II, the “List of substances which must not form part of the composition of cosmetic products”; costus root oil heads its updated list, and the committee concluded that the listed substances “should not be used as fragrance ingredients in cosmetic products”.17 The Commission’s CosIng database carries the entry under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 as Annex II, reference 1133: “Costus root oil (Saussurea lappa Clarke), when used as a fragrance ingredient”, CAS 8023-88-9.18 The wording ties the prohibition to fragrance use.

CITES Appendix I, and what it means

CITES listed the species in Appendix II on 1 July 1975, annotated “Designates roots”, and in Appendix I from 1 August 1985; the European Union places it in Annex A.5 United States rules define Appendix I as “Species threatened with extinction that are or may be affected by trade. Trade in Appendix-I specimens may take place only in exceptional circumstances.”19 India adds a stricter measure: no commercial export of wild-taken specimens, except cultivated varieties of Appendix I and II plants.5 A 2015 IUCN Red List assessment lists the species as Critically Endangered.201 Growers surveyed in Uttarakhand found that “export of cultivated products was a major challenge due to existing laws”.10 CostusAbsolute.com has no affiliation with CITES, IUCN or any government, and its sale involves no plant material.

Who builds on a name like CostusAbsolute.com

• Fragrance houses and base makers. A prohibited oil, and replacer bases built to stand in for it.616
• Perfume historians and archives. Pliny’s “most exquisite odour”, putchock on the China run.98
• Botanical and conservation publishers. Three generic names, one Critically Endangered root.320
• Himalayan growers and cooperatives. A century of cultivation in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.10
• Regulatory-affairs consultancies. IFRA Standard 124, EU Annex II entry 1133, CITES Appendix I.6185
• Chemistry and allergen-science publishers. Two lactones, one reactive group.1114

1. Saussurea costus (Falc.) Lipsch.World Flora Online, 2026
2. Saussurea costus (Falc.) Lipsch. (1964).IPNI, Kew
3. Kasana S et al. An updated circumscription of Saussurea.Phytotaxa, 2020
4. Dolomiaea costus (Falc.) Kasana & A.K.Pandey (2020).IPNI, Kew
5. Saussurea costus: CITES and EU listings.Species+, UNEP-WCMC
6. IFRA Standard: Costus root oil, absolute and concrete.IFRA, 2006 (Amendment 40)
7. Shah NC. Kuṣṭha, Saussurea costus: its history from the Atharvaveda.Indian J Hist Sci, 2019
8. Hobson-Jobson: Putchock.Digital South Asia Library, Univ. of Chicago
9. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 12.25: Costus.Perseus, Tufts (Bostock & Riley trans.)
10. Kuniyal CP et al. Is cultivation of Saussurea costus sustaining its conservation?J Threatened Taxa, 2019
11. Cheminat A et al. Allergic contact dermatitis to costus.Acta Derm Venereol, 1981
12. Schmelzer GH. Saussurea costus (PROSEA).Pl@ntUse, PROSEA
13. Costus root oil: organoleptic data.The Good Scents Company
14. Salapovic H et al. Sesquiterpene lactones in Asteraceae extracts.Sci Pharm, 2013
15. IFRA Code of Practice.IFRA
16. Costus root oil replacer.The Good Scents Company
17. SCCNFP/0771/03: perfumery materials which must not form part of fragrance compounds.European Commission, SCCNFP, 2003
18. CosIng: Costus root oil, Annex II/1133.European Commission, CosIng
19. 50 CFR § 23.4: Appendices I, II and III.US Code of Federal Regulations (LII, Cornell)
20. Saha D et al. Saussurea costus.IUCN Red List, 2015