Litsea Cubeba

Bright and sweetly lemony, like freshly grated lemon zest, with a fruity, almost sherbet-like undertone and a slightly green freshness.

• In Taiwan the plant is known as mountain pepper: its small, lemony-hot fruits are traditionally used there as a spice, notably by the Indigenous Atayal people.

The fruit oil is typically around 80–90 % citral, the isomer pair geranial and neral, with geranial in the lead. That makes it a raw material for isolated citral and for aroma chemicals built from it, such as ionone and methyl ionone.