> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.losiam.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Chalood: The Bark Sold as Cinnamon That Isn't - URL: https://www.losiam.com/chalood-bark-absolute-alyxia-reinwardtii-thailand/ - Published: 2026-08-27T06:00:21.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-28T06:19:44.000Z - Description: Sold across Southeast Asia as "white cinnamon," Chalood bark shares nothing with true cinnamon botanically. Meet Alyxia reinwardtii — the coumarin-rich Thai bark behind LOSiam's newest absolute, and the two very different pharmacopeias that have relied on it for centuries - Author: Thomas POUPLIN - Tags: #Chalood, #Alyxia reinwardtii, #Thai Botanicals, #Natural Perfumery, #Ethical Sourcing, #Chiang Mai *How a bark mistaken for cinnamon across a dozen markets and two national pharmacopeias became one of LOSiam's newest absolutes.* Walk through a traditional medicine stall in Chiang Mai, Yogyakarta, or Denpasar, and you may find the same dried bark sold under three different names, in three different languages, for three different ailments. Thai vendors call it *chalood*. Javanese herbalists call it *pulasari*. Perfumery buyers, more often than not, call it "white cinnamon." None of these names are wrong, exactly. None of them are quite right either — because this bark, botanically, has nothing to do with cinnamon at all. ## A Name Borrowed, A Family Apart Chalood comes from *Alyxia reinwardtii* Blume, a woody climber in the Apocynaceae family — the same family as oleander and frangipani, and about as far from *Cinnamomum* (true cinnamon) as a fragrant bark can get. The "white cinnamon" label is a market convenience, earned by the bark's pale color and warm, sweet-spiced aroma rather than by any shared chemistry. The plant's range is wide — from southern China down through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, into Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo and Palawan — and so are its names: *chalut* in central and southeastern Thailand, *luut* or *nuut* on the peninsula, *pulasari*, *pulosari* or *palasari* across Indonesia. At LOSiam, our bark is hand-harvested in Sakon Nakhon, in Thailand's northeast. ![](https://www.losiam.com/content/images/2026/08/20260507_144626-1.jpg) Bark chips before extraction. **The raw material, before it becomes a tincture* ## One Bark, Two Pharmacopeias In Thailand, all parts of the plant have traditionally been used as an antipyretic and a cardiotonic — something to bring down a fever and steady the heart. Across the strait, in Java, the same bark became something closer to a cornerstone. Sold as *pulasari*, it is a principal ingredient in *jamu*, Indonesia's traditional herbal medicine, most often paired with fennel in a combination called *adas-pulasari*. Researchers have counted close to twenty distinct jamu formulas built around this pairing in Central Java alone — used historically to treat everything from digestive complaints to general malaise, and still manufactured commercially today by producers like Sido Muncul, for appetite, fever, and respiratory support. This is not an exotic, marginal material. It is closer to what clove or ginger is to other pharmacopeias: a working ingredient, present in the household, rarely glamorous, always useful. ## The Chemistry Behind the Comfort What gives Chalood its particular warmth is a specific chemical signature. Analyses of the dried bark identify a family of coumarins — including 3-, 5- and 8-hydroxycoumarin and their glycosides — alongside iridoid glycosides such as pulosarioside, plus lignans and flavonoids. Coumarins are the same class of molecule responsible for the hay-like sweetness of tonka bean and fresh-cut grass; they are very likely what gives the LOSiam absolute its toasted-almond, tonka-adjacent facet, layered under the bark's own woody-spicy backbone. Separate pharmacological studies have examined the bark's antioxidant, antibacterial and gastroprotective activity — consistent with centuries of use as a stomach remedy, and a reminder that traditional pharmacopeias often identify real chemistry long before a laboratory names it. ## A Wild Trade, Rarely Traced Here is the part of the Chalood story that rarely makes it into a product description: most of the world's supply is still wild-collected. Botanical trade literature on *Alyxia reinwardtii* notes that accurate production figures barely exist, because the bark is gathered from wild populations rather than cultivated — even as demand for *pulasari* in Indonesian jamu has been estimated to grow by roughly 15% a year. It is a precious material moving through an almost untraceable supply chain, the kind of raw-material anonymity fine fragrance has spent the last decade trying to correct. Our approach starts from the opposite assumption. The bark is hand-harvested, available year-round, and extracted at LOSiam as a slow alcoholic tincture using a renewable, green solvent — allergen-tamed and IFRA compliant from the first batch, not retrofitted later. ![](https://www.losiam.com/content/images/2026/08/20250827_135926-1.jpg) Slow (and magic) tincturing of the Chalood bark powder ## The Olfactory Profile Chalood's absolute reads as an oriental "cloudlike," comforting warmth rather than a sharp spice: - **Toasted woods** and **almond powder** as the opening register - A **tonka bean** and **gingerbread** heart, courtesy of its coumarin content - A subtly **lactonic softness** — present without adding weight - A **mellow, spiced musk** in the drydown It sits in a specific, underpopulated space: warmer than sandalwood, drier than true cinnamon, without the sharpness of clove or the animalic weight of an oud. For perfumers building gourmand-oriental or spiced-woody accords who want a naturalistic alternative to synthetic coumarin bases, this is close to the real thing — because, chemically, it is one. ## Available Now Chalood Absolute is part of LOSiam's year-round collection. It has already found its way **onto the shelves of established international raw-material distributors**, proof, if any were needed, that a properly sourced, allergen-tamed batch of this bark has a place in serious perfumery, not just in the herbal market stalls it came from. Reach out for a sample. ![](https://www.losiam.com/content/images/2026/08/20260826_124930-1.jpg) ### Technical data - Botanical name: *Alyxia reinwardtii* Blume - Extract part: bark - Form: absolute - Olfactory family: coumarinic · gourmand · spicy - Process: Renewable solvent (bio-ethanol tincture) - Allergen status: allergen-tamed, IFRA compliant - Harvest window: all year - Origin: hand-harvested, Sakon Nakhon, Thailand [info@losiam.com](mailto:info@losiam.com) · [www.losiam.com](https://www.losiam.com/) --- *Sources: PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia), "Alyxia reinwardtii"; Pl@ntUse, "Alyxia (PROSEA)"; Nugroho et al., "Gastroprotective Effect of Combination of Hot Water Extracts of Licorice, Pulasari Stem Bark, and Sembung Leaf" (Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, 2016); "Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activity of Different Solvent Extracts of Leaves and Stem of Alyxia reinwardtii Blume" (Malaysian Applied Biology); PT Industri Jamu dan Farmasi Sido Muncul Tbk, product documentation.*