Nag Champa

Nag Champa is an Indian fragrance, commonly found in incense, soap, perfume oil, essential oils, candles and personal toileteries originating there. It is commonly used in ashrams.

Composition and properties

Nag Champa incense stick burning

Indian incenses containing Plumeria, known in the West as Frangipani, have Champa in their name. Champa incenses contain a semi-liquid resin, "halmaddi," taken from the Ailanthus Malabarica tree, which gives them their characteristic grey color and damp texture: halmaddi is hygroscopic. The resin also contains a psychoactive beta-carboline. Nag Champa contains a large proportion of sandalwood. Nag Champa remains perhaps the world's most popular incense, historically with the ashram of the late Satya Sai Baba. Nag Champa has a strong individual smell that cannot be found in any other incense fragrances, generally starting with a potent smell that changes to a cool sweet smell as time passes.

Trivia

Box of Nag Champa incense sticks

• Bob Dylan has burned Nag Champa at his concerts, and as such it is popular among Bob Dylan enthusiasts.
• The Grateful Dead and more recently Akron/Family, The Black Crowes, and Third Eye Blind have been found to burn Nag Champa at performances.
• Stevie Nicks refers to Nag Champa in her song "Illume 9/11", on the Fleetwood Mac album Say You Will.
• Rapper Common has a song entitled "Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the World)" on his album Like Water for Chocolate.
• Asher Roth also mentions Nag Champa on the song "Change Gon Come" with Charles Hamilton and B.o.B. from B.o.B.'s mixtape The Unclearables.