Research
Orchids naturally thrive in warm and humid habitats surrounded by lush green & thick rainforests of Thailand, Brazil, Hawaii, India, Mexico, Japan, Philippines, Peru, Malaysia and our very own Singapore. Most of these are Asian countries and its no surprise that we started to use these as herbs and as part of traditional medicines.
Singapore Memories® is trying to research on these fragrant and therapeutic Orchids of Asia and bring them to you as perfumes, room aroma and eventually as skin care.
History
Before we talk about Singapore Memories' story, we would like to honor few legendary genius.
Mr. Shên-nung- 2800BC
The “Father of Chinese Medicine”, mentioned a certain Orchid species in his medical writings in the 28th century BC.
Other Asian traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda, TM of Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, etc also evolved. Ayurveda included īvantī, Jīvaka, Ṛṣabhaka, Rāsnā, Mānakanda, Pañcagula, which are known to be Orchids as well.
Mr. William Farquhar - 1800 AD
He single handedly created 477 watercolours of flora. Many of these were Native Orchids of Singapore that included Pigeon Orchid, Orchid Ginger.
Sir Stamford Raffles - 1800 ADHe commissioned 1st Botanical Garden and "Raffles House" on top of Fort Canning Hill. This botanical garden was eventually moved to its current location. The beautiful "Raffles house" is a Singaporean icon.
Mr. Nathaniel Wallich - 1800 AD
Mr Wallich was brought to Singapore to design the botanical garden. He stayed here for about 1-2 years and in the mena time was able to create a hybrid Orchid called "Vanda Wallachii". His most important work was creation of a catalogue of more than 20,000 specimens, which most people call the "Wallich Catalogue". Today it is a UNESCO site
Mr. Henry Ridley - 1800 AD
Mr. Ridley came to Singapore in 1888 and worked here for 23 years. He most amazing contribution is that he was able to grow first rubber plant in Botanical garden, Singapore. Because of his methods, Asia was able to grow rubber plants and it produces 2/3rd of natural rubber.
He was very interested in orchids and had collected over 200 new species which were new to the Western science. Singapore’s national flower, Vanda Miss Joaquim, was discovered during his times. He contributed a lot to understanding families of Gesneriaceae, Araceae, and Zingiberaceae.
Humphrey Morrison Burkill - 1900
Mr Burkill has a long list of contribution towards Singapore's flora. We would like to mention one particular event that he hosted. The 4th World Orchid Conference in 1963, which was held in Singapore. During this conference, Mr Burkill presented a paper on the "Role of Singapore Botanic Gardens in the development of orchid hybrids in Singapore." This brought a lot of attention to Singapore as a home of Orchids.
Founders of National Orchid Garden Singapore
This 3 hectare area has more than 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids of orchids.
A native Singaporean Tiger Orchid at nparks is believed to be the largest and oldest in the world.
Creativity
The Quest for Aromatic Perfection - Singapore-Memories founder is always searching best aromatic plants as well as defining Singaporean products and also. This quest automatically led to "Native Orchids of Singapore". In 2013, we found some Native orchids which were amazing to smell and could be used in perfumes.
As we continued researching, we found several Orchids that were medicinal. Now, after years of research, we know how wide and varied Orchids are and we never plan to stop our research.
We intend to present you the most refined, elegant and memorable collection of perfumes and room fragrances. Hope you love it as much as we do. We will soon launch skin care and keep refining it as we discover more and more about these amazing Asian Orchids.
Fragrance of Orchids: Almost all orchids have a natural routine for scent release. Our favourite Aranda and Vanda are the same. They have been developed into fascinating hybrids, sometimes losing their smells to the scientific manipulation. The wild orchids still retain their smells and will show their beautiful scent to those who are patient with them.
Therapeutic Benefits for Cosmetic applications: Anacamptis coriophora and Anacamptis pyramidalis have 2 phytoalexins, orchinol and p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, which have natural whitening effects.
Bulbophyllum inconspicuum is used for treating acne for thousands of years.
Several other orchids that are amazing for skin are - Aerides falcata Lindl., Aerides odorata Lour, Arundina graminifolia, Bletilla formosana and more.
We are currently working to develop these into a premium skin care.
