The patchouli-oil industry in Atjeh is the indigenous processing of patchouli leaves into essential oil, begun at Tapa Toean on the Westkust van Atjeh in 1921 with government support and the cooperation of the Afdeeling Nijverheid of the Landbouwconsulent at Buitenzorg, and surveyed in two Berichten of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum of the Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut — Bericht No. 21 of May 1925 and Bericht No. 71 of 1932, the latter by Ir. W. Spoon under the title Atjeh Patchouli-Olie.
Background and Origin
Before 1921 the entire patchouli-leaf harvest of Atjeh had been shipped raw to Singapore and Penang for distillation by Chinese-owned stills. The first factory at Tapa Toean was founded in 1921 with government support and the cooperation of the Afdeeling Nijverheid of the Landbouwconsulent at Buitenzorg, with the aim of showing that an oil of at least equal quality to the Singapore product could be distilled in Atjeh itself. The plant — Pogostemon Cablin Benth. — is called nilam on Sumatra and dilem on Java. On Sumatra the chief centres of cultivation are on the Westkust at Tjalang, Meulaboh and Tapa Toean, and on the Oostkust at Langsa. Soil and climate in Atjeh appear naturally more favourable to the plant than on Java, where the oil, though of respectable constants, has ‘lang niet zoo intensief’ an odour.
The Two Berichten
The first Bericht (No. 21, May 1925) recorded the earliest attempts at indigenous processing. The second Bericht (No. 71, 1932) surveyed the industry’s progress over ten years through export statistics and a programme of laboratory analysis on six sample consignments received by the Handelsmuseum in 1931 and early 1932. Spoon’s tables show the Atjeh leaf export rising from 1.097 tons in 1924 to a peak of 1.375 tons in 1927 and falling to 638 tons in 1931. Of the 1931 figure, 9 tons went direct to the Netherlands, 12 tons to Germany, 512 tons to Penang and 105 tons to Singapore — showing that the greater part of the leaf harvest was still being shipped out raw.
Atjeh Nilam-Oil Export
The Atjeh nilam-oil export, tracked in Spoon’s Tabel III, rose from 50 kg in 1924 to 3.468 kg in 1931, while the Java dilem-oil export in the same year was 1.865 kg. The destination of the 1931 Atjeh oil exports was: 2.465 kg to Singapore, 855 kg to Penang, 360 kg to Japan, 110 kg to the Netherlands (the first direct shipment to the Netherlands), 841 kg to France, 50 kg to Germany and 38 kg to the United States. By 1931 there were patchouli-distilleries near Kota Radja, at Meulaboh, and two or three at Tapa Toean.
Laboratory Findings
Spoon’s six sample oils — numbered 1874, 1882, 1958-1, 1958-2, 1986 and 2076 — were analysed for soortelijk gewicht (specific gravity), brekingsindex (refractive index), draaiing (optical rotation in a 100 mm tube), zuurgetal (acid value), estergetal (ester value) and solubility in 90 vol.% alcohol. The first two samples were judged impure — ‘deze olie was dus onzuiver, er had een bijmenging plaats gevonden’ — but the four later samples gave good constants. To test market reception Spoon sent them to perfume manufacturers in the Netherlands, Germany, England and France. The French house replied that the oil ‘correspond aux qualités bonnes normales connues jusqu’à ce jour de provenance de Singapore’; the German house found the constants identical with those of the Singapore distillates but the odour ‘ausdruckslos’; the English house judged the oil ‘definitely much inferior to oil distilled by us from Singapore leaves’, with a camphoraceous and peppery note absent from its own product, and suggested that the difference lay in the age and dryness of the leaves distilled; the Dutch house found the odour ‘niet slecht’ but ‘iets kamferachtigs’.
Significance
The patchouli-oil industry in Atjeh is the type-case of the post-pacification volkscultuur promoted by the Koloniaal Instituut and the colonial government. It demonstrates both the possibilities of indigenous processing of an existing raw-material export and the obstacles — quality-control, market-reception, the competition of the Chinese distilleries of Penang and Singapore — that such an industry faced in the inter-war period.
Account from Over patchouly-olie en patchouly-blad van Atjeh (1925) — Bericht No. 21
The full correspondence of the Atjeh patchouli experiments of 1921-1925 is preserved in *Bericht* No. 21 of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum (April 1925). The Bericht opens with the letter of 6 August 1921 from the Afdeeling Nijverheid at Buitenzorg to the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum at Amsterdam announcing the beginning of distillation at Tapa Toean, and closes in April 1925 with the Handelsmuseum’s verdict that “Er is een sluier opgeheven, en de afhankelijkheid van Singapore en Penang, wat betreft het verkrijgen van prima patchouly, vervallen” — A veil has been lifted, and the dependence on Singapore and Penang, in respect of obtaining prime patchouli, has lapsed.
The Three European Verdicts of 1921-1922
The first Atjeh-distilled oil samples reached Amsterdam in September 1921 and were distributed to three of the leading European essential-oil houses:
- Schimmel & Co. of Miltitz near Leipzig — the world’s largest essential-oil house — reported in December 1921 (analysis signed by Dr. Richard Dunkel) that the oil was “ein vollwertiges Konkurrenzprodukt für das Singaporeöl … nicht” — not a full-value competitive product for the Singapore oil.
- Roure, Bertrand fils of Grasse — the oldest French perfumery house — reported in December 1921 that the same oils were “de très bonne qualité et possèdent une valeur commerciale indiscutable” — of very good quality and of indisputable commercial value.
- Polak & Schwarz’s Essencefabrieken of Hilversum — the principal Dutch essential-oil house — reported in January 1922 that, while the constants were satisfactory, the odour was “zeer matig” (very mediocre) and would find a market only at 30-40% below the Singapore price.
The 1923-1924 Leaf-Consignment Programme
After the discouraging 1921-1922 verdicts, the Handelsmuseum proposed a regular quarterly programme of raw-leaf shipments, sent direct from Atjeh, distributed to the European houses for distillation and evaluation. The first baal — one pikol — was shipped from Tapa Toean in early July 1924, via Sabang, to Amsterdam, with the leaf “under European supervision selected”.
The Atjehsche Oliefabriek had been taken over, around 1924, by a European resident of Tapa Toean, Van Vreeswijk, after a period of standstill. Van Vreeswijk’s letter of 16 August 1924 to the Handelsmuseum gave the discovery that transformed the Atjeh patchouli-oil industry: the patchouli leaf of Bakongan, grown on the sand-and-swamp conjunction of the Bakongan coastal strip and dried with the care the Bakongan planters had begun to devote to it, was the finest patchouli-leaf of Atjeh, with an odour “veel sterker dan dat uit eenig andere streek in Atjeh”. Van Vreeswijk ranked the three principal Tapa Toean patchouli districts: Labohan-Hadji the least valuable, Loboang Koang the middling, Bakongan the best.
The Bakongan Triumph of Winter 1924-1925
The Bakongan leaf, when distilled by the European houses over the winter of 1924-1925, produced oil uniformly judged equal in quality to the best Singapore-Penang product. Schimmel & Co. of Miltitz reported: “Die untersuchten Dilemblätter sind hiernach den Singapore-Patchouliblättern als gleichwertig zu erachten” — the Dilem leaves are to be considered equivalent to the Singapore patchouli leaves. The Dutch factory reported the oil “ruikt heel goed en komt ons inziens in reuk overeen met goede kwaliteit Penang-olie” — smells very good and corresponds in odour to good-quality Penang oil.
The Handelsmuseum’s conclusion was concise: “prima blad, prima olie; op de winning van het goede blad komt het aan! en niet op de nabehandeling te Penang of Singapore” — Prime leaf, prime oil; it is the winning of the good leaf that matters, and not the after-treatment at Penang or Singapore.
See Also
- Ir. W. Spoon
- Atjeh Patchouli-Olie (1932)
- Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut
- Afdeeling Handelsmuseum
- Tapa Toean
- Tjalang
- Meulaboh
- Langsa
- Kota Radja
- Pogostemon Cablin (patchouli plant)
- Nilam
- Dilem
- 1921
- 1925
- 1931
- 1932
Source
Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon. Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut, No. 71. Overgedrukt uit De Indische Mercuur van 20 July 1932. Amsterdam: Druk J. H. de Bussy. Also Bericht No. 21 of May 1925.
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim.
Over patchouly-olie en patchouly-blad van Atjeh (Noord-Sumatra). Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut, No. 21. Overgedrukt uit De Indische Mercuur van 8 en 15 Mei 1925. Amsterdam: Druk De Bussy. OCR-filename: 20260801_233856_DLP-153-Over_patchouly_olie_en_patchouly_blad_van_Atjeh_Noord_Sumatra_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 3-21.