NORTHAMPTON — A heavenly fragrance permeates the air inside the Botanic Garden at Smith College where Shabnam Kapur’s green thumb has left an imprint in the form of a new exhibit.
The recent Smith College graduate curated “Botanical Fragrance From Plants to Perfume,” a show that sheds light on the depth of the fragrance industry. Kapur, who is from New Delhi, said there is a disconnect between the purchase of perfumes and their source. She hopes her exhibit will add value to the world of plants by creating a space where people can become more mindful.
“In this day and age, when you’re getting everything so packaged,” she said, “a lot of people don’t know that perfume comes from plants.”
A former biology major on the ecology and conservation track, Kapur interned at the botanic garden during her sophomore, junior and senior years. Rob Nicholson, conservatory manager and lecturer in biological sciences, oversaw Kapur’s most recent internship and collaborated with her on the exhibit.
“She has a natural curiosity about plants and that’s half the battle,” he said about Kapur. “She’s thirsty to learn something new and just a sponge for factual information.”
Clad in a floral dress with hair braided neatly over her shoulder, Kapur matched his remarks as she sat in the garden one day this month explaining her work.
“A scent is usually not made up of just one kind of fragrance,” she said. “It has different notes.”
In any perfume, she said, there are typically three notes: a top note, which is the first fragrance you smell, a middle note that lingers for a while, and a base note that stays all through the day.
“It’s very complex and (perfumers) have to think about the interaction between these different fragrances,” she said. The various scents often come from essential oils that have been derived from plants.
Nicholson said that “connecting a product with its source can be an actual revelation,” for some.
Student and adviser put their heads together on forming the exhibit after discovering the flower brugmansia, otherwise known as angel’s trumpet, which they said is not often used in perfume.
While researching the plant, they stumbled across Datura Noir, a fragrance by Serge Lutens, a French perfumer who they said creates very whimsical explainers of his scents.
The perfume description reads: “Like a diabolic trail of smoke left by Satan in Paradise, some say this fragrance will enthrall you; others that it will make you crazy. Others still that excessive exposure will kill you dead. To be precise, one night I took brugmansia, also known as angel’s trumpet, and distilled the notes of its lingering memory.”
Kapur contacted the perfumer, who sent her a bottle of the $135 perfume for the exhibit. Nicholson and Kapur then worked together to craft an interactive experience around the brugmansia centerpiece, pulling in fragrant plants already owned by the conservatory and adding some new ones to the collection.
“There are so many,” Kapur said of her work in curating the show. “Which ones do you choose, which ones do you use, which ones don’t you use?”
Among the nearly 30 plants displayed are rose, cardamom, lemongrass, jasmine, gardenia, sweet violet and ylang ylang, Kapur said, adding that the latter is a key ingredient in the popular Chanel N° 5 fragrance.
Alongside each plant is a bell jar containing the coordinating essential oil, directing visitors to lift the jar and smell the aroma. Madelaine Zadik, who is the manager of education and outreach at the garden, helped Kapur with the accompanying signs.
“There’s kind of like a sensory participation level to it,” Nicholson said. “Scent is such a slippery concept for people.”
He explained that most people are well-trained in describing visuals and tastes, but “flounder” when asked to put words to a scent.
Kapur said that while many struggle with the description of smell, it is an integral part of the human experience.
“Without it, I would be quite lost,” she said. “It helps me orient myself in a lot of situations.”
The botanic garden has been a home away from home for Kapur, who lives approximately 7,000 miles across the ocean from Smith. She says in addition to creating memories and associations for people, scent also helps plants communicate among themselves, as well as to pollinators and predators.
And perfumers must pay attention to these details, too.
“The scent that comes out of a flower is different depending on the time of day,” she said. “And if the plant was pollinated by a bat, it would probably be more fragrant at night. If a plant was pollinated by bees, probably in the morning.
“You want to harvest your flowers at the time when they will be the most fragrant so you can get the most essential oils out of them.”
Kapur has loved plants since she learned to garden from her grandmother in India, but her education at Smith has helped her to focus on the importance of sustainability.
“Certain students stand out over the years and she’s one of the stars,” said Nicholson. “She has the ability to do whatever she wants in life.”
Nicholson said Kapur is the best student he’s had in his 10 years of teaching an economic botany course in which he first met her, and he’s confident that pattern won’t end at Smith College.
The 22-year-old has secured a job working alongside a self-taught botanist to create a biodiversity park using native plants in an arid area of India.
But her success doesn’t go to her head.
“Plants give life, they give us medicine, they give us beauty, they give us wonderful fragrances,” she said. “I just, I really do like them.”
The exhibit in the Physiology House of the Lyman Conservatory at the Botanic Garden of Smith College is free and open to the public through Tuesday.
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.