Cedarwood

NaturalWOODS & MOSSESwoody · dry · clean

Seven perfumesOne of them is looking at you

BasePyramid

—Strength

—Tenacity

2Origins

Specimen

Juniperus virginiana (Virginia) Cedrus atlantica (Atlas)

Definition

Cedarwood oils are essential oils derived from various conifers, most in the pine or cypress families, and the most important ones are distilled from the wood of junipers and cypresses of the family Cupressaceae rather than from true cedars of the family Pinaceae. Each has a characteristic woody odour.

WOODY SWEET BALSAMIC WARM FRESH DRY CREAMY CAMPHORACEOUS

cedar oil, cedarwood oil

Type: Ingredient
Olfactive family: Woods
Subfamily: Dry woods
Cluster: Cedar-like dry woods
Source: wood
Chemical class: complex natural (essential oil)

Instruments

Pyramid

TTop

HHeart

BBase

Producing countries

Morocco (Atlas) United States

Scent

Cedarwood oils each have a characteristic woody odour, which may change somewhat in the course of drying out. Atlas cedarwood essential oil brings fresh and camphor notes, and its woody scent recalls the resinous forest.

In PREMIEREPEAU

DISCOVERY SET7 × 2 ml →NUIT ÉLASTIQUEExtrait →EXTRAIT DE PARFUMThe seven extraits →

Terroir & Maturity

The Full Story

Cedarwood oil, also called cedar oil, is an essential oil obtained from several kinds of conifer, most of them in the pine or cypress families. Similar oils are distilled, pressed or chemically extracted in small quantities from wood, roots and leaves of plants of the genera Platycladus, Cupressus, Taiwania and Calocedrus.

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Trees and oils

Virginia cedarwood oil comes from Juniperus virginiana, also called eastern red cedar. This species is a juniper of the family Cupressaceae, not a true cedar. It is native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Great Plains. Juniperus ashei, the source of Texas cedarwood oil, occurs on thousands of acres in central Texas. The Texas cedarwood oil industry began in 1929 in Rock Springs, Texas.

Atlas cedar, Cedrus atlantica, is a true cedar of the pine family Pinaceae. It is native to the Rif and Atlas Mountains of Morocco and to the Tell Atlas in Algeria. Morocco has the highest total surface of Atlas cedar in the world. The Atlas cedar has the conservation status endangered (IUCN 3.1), and it is in danger from human use, wood harvesting and fires.

Chemistry

All the cedarwood oils of commerce contain a group of chemically related compounds, whose proportions depend on the species the oil comes from. These compounds include cedrol and cedrene, which contribute something to the odour of the whole oil.

Cedrol is a sesquiterpene alcohol with the formula C₁₅H₂₆O. It makes up about 19% of Texas cedarwood oil and 15.8% of Virginia cedarwood oil. Thujopsene makes up 60.4% of Texas oil and 27.6% of Virginia oil. Alpha-cedrene makes up 27.2% of Virginia oil, while it makes up 1.8% of Texas oil. In the commercially available cedar oil of Juniperus virginiana, alpha-cedrene, thujopsene and cedrol together make up more than 60% of the essential oil. The fruits of Juniperus virginiana yield an essential oil that contains mostly D-limonene, while the oil from its foliage and twigs has safrole and limonene as its two main constituents.

An Atlas cedarwood essential oil from Morocco contains beta-himachalene at 40.00 to 52.00%, alpha-himachalene at 12.00 to 20.00% and gamma-himachalene at 6.00 to 14.00%. Alpha-cedrene and trans-alpha-atlantone are each present at up to 6.00%.

Uses

Cedar oils from all species have some degree of pesticidal effects. The amount of cedrol in a species affects its pesticidal effect on insects. Cedarwood oil is a mixture of organic compounds that the FDA considers generally safe as a food additive preservative.

History

The cedarwood oil of the Sumerians and Egyptians came from the Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani, a true cedar native to the northern and western mountains of West Asia. The cedar forests of antiquity have been almost entirely eradicated, and no commercial oil extraction is based on this species today.

The ancient Sumerians used cedarwood oil as the base for paints. One of three methods of ancient Egyptian embalming used cedarwood oil. Vessels from a Seleucid administrative archive at Tel Kedesh, active in the 2nd century BCE, support ancient texts that describe the use of cedar oil to preserve papyrus and protect documents from insects and decay.

In 1941 there was no market for cedrol, and it was treated as a waste product. Cedarwood oil served as the immersion oil for the oil immersion objective in light microscopy until synthetic immersion oil was developed in the 1940s.

Did You Know?

Red cedar was the favoured timber for pencils because it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened. Incense cedar, dyed and perfumed to resemble red cedar, proved a suitable alternative, and most pencils today are made from it.

Extraction & Chemistry

Extraction method

Part of the commercially available cedar oil is produced by steam distillation from wood shavings. Atlas cedarwood oil is distilled from sawdust, a by-product of the lumber industry. Distilling sapwood of Juniperus virginiana gave only 0.2% oil, and young trees of the species yield less than 1% oil, compared with 3.5% from older trees.

Formula: Complex natural mixture (key constituents: cedrol C₁₅H₂₆O; α-cedrene; β-cedrene; thujopsene; himachalenes)
Botanical: Juniperus virginiana (Virginia) Cedrus atlantica (Atlas)
Synonyms: cedar oil, cedarwood oil

IFRA status

See note

No IFRA Standard for the material itself (51st Amendment)

In Perfumery

Cedarwood oils are used both directly and as sources of chemical isolates. Cedrol and cedrene are valuable to the chemical industry for conversion into other derivatives with fragrance applications.

Role in the formula

01modifier

02backbone

03signature note

04blender

05volume builder

06freshness

Available as

essential oil