Cedar oil
Encyclopedia
Cedar oil, also known as cedarwood oil, is an essential oil
derived from the foliage, and sometimes the wood and roots, of various types of conifers
, most in the pine
or cypress
botanical families. It has many uses in medicine
, art
, industry
and perfumery
, and while the characteristics of oils derived from various species may themselves vary, all have some degree of bactericidal and pesticidal
effects.
Sources and characteristics=
Although termed cedar or cedarwood oils, the most important oils of this group are produced from distilling
wood of a number of different juniper
s and cypress
es (Juniperus and Cupressus
spp., of the family Cupressaceae
), rather than true cedars (Cedrus spp., of the family Pinaceae
). A cedar leaf oil is also commercially distilled from the Eastern arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis
, also of the Cupressaceae), and similar oils are distilled, pressed or chemically extracted in small quantities from wood, roots and leaves from plants of the genera Platycladus
, Cupressus
, Taiwania
and Calocedrus
.
The cedar oil of the ancients, in particular the Sumerians
and Egyptians
, was derived from the Cedar of Lebanon, a true cedar native to the northern and western mountains of the middle east
. The once-mighty Cedar of Lebanon forests of antiquity have been almost entirely eradicated, and today no commercial oil extraction is based on this species.
Uses=
Cedarwood oils each have characteristic woody odours which may change somewhat in the course of drying out. The crude oils are often yellowish or even darker in colour and some, such as Texas cedarwood oil (derived primarily from Juniperus ashei
and J. deppeana
, are quite viscous and deposit crystals on standing. They find use (sometimes after rectification
) in a range of fragrance applications such as soap perfumes, household sprays, floor polishes and insecticides. Small quantities are used in microscope work as a clearing oil.
All the cedarwood oils of commerce contain a group of chemically related compounds, the relative proportions of which depend upon the species from which the oil is obtained. These compounds include cedrol and cedrene, and while they contribute something to the odour of the whole oil they are also valuable to the chemical industry for conversion to other derivatives with fragrance applications. The oils are therefore used both directly and as sources of chemical isolates.
Cedar oil was used as the base for paint
s by the ancient Sumer
ians. They would grind cobalt
compound
s in a mortar and pestle
to produce a blue pigment
. They could obtain green from copper
, yellow from lead antimoniate, black from charcoal
, and white from gypsum
.
Today, cedar oil is often used for its aromatic properties, especially in aromatherapy
; it can also be used to renew the smell of natural cedar furniture. Cedar oil is used as an insect repellent
, both directly applied to the skin and as an additive to sprays, candles and other products.
In India, oil from the deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara, a true cedar) has been shown to possess insecticidal
and antifungal
properties and to have some potential for control of fungal deterioration of spices during storage. However, its commercial potential for this purpose remains, at present, speculative.
One of three methods of ancient Egyptian embalming
practices employs the use of cedar oil. This was a less costly method than the most well known of the ancient Egyptian practices of removing internal organs for separate preservation in canopic jars
. The practice
Until the development of synthetic immersion oil in the 1940s cedar oil was widely used for the oil immersion objective in light microscopy
.
Cedarwood oil is a mixture of organic compounds considered generally safe by the FDA as a food additive preservative
. The oil is used as an antibacterial and fungicide. Studies have shown that prolonged exposure to high levels of cedarwood oil can cause liver and pulmonary toxicity. The United States EPA does not expect such effects to occur among users of currently registered products because their use and public exposure is at a much lower level and more intermittent then those in the case studies. The EPA believes there is negligible human environmental risk posed by exposure to registered cedarwood pesticide or food preservative products if used in properly prescribed manner.
Essential oil
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove...
derived from the foliage, and sometimes the wood and roots, of various types of conifers
Pinophyta
The conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferophyta or Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being...
, most in the pine
Pinaceae
Pinaceae are trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly known as Coniferales. Pinaceae are supported as monophyletic by its protein-type sieve...
or cypress
Cupressaceae
The Cupressaceae or cypress family is a conifer family with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27 to 30 genera , which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130-140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or dioecious trees and shrubs from 1-116 m tall...
botanical families. It has many uses in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
and perfumery
Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
, and while the characteristics of oils derived from various species may themselves vary, all have some degree of bactericidal and pesticidal
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
effects.
Sources and characteristics=
Although termed cedar or cedarwood oils, the most important oils of this group are produced from distilling
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
wood of a number of different juniper
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...
s and cypress
Cypress
Cypress is the name applied to many plants in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is a conifer of northern temperate regions. Most cypress species are trees, while a few are shrubs...
es (Juniperus and Cupressus
Cupressus
The genus Cupressus is one of several genera within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypress; for the others, see cypress. It is considered a polyphyletic group...
spp., of the family Cupressaceae
Cupressaceae
The Cupressaceae or cypress family is a conifer family with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27 to 30 genera , which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130-140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or dioecious trees and shrubs from 1-116 m tall...
), rather than true cedars (Cedrus spp., of the family Pinaceae
Pinaceae
Pinaceae are trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly known as Coniferales. Pinaceae are supported as monophyletic by its protein-type sieve...
). A cedar leaf oil is also commercially distilled from the Eastern arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis
Thuja occidentalis
Thuja occidentalis is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is widely cultivated for use as an ornamental plant known as American Arbor Vitae. The endemic occurrence of this species is a northeastern distribution in North America...
, also of the Cupressaceae), and similar oils are distilled, pressed or chemically extracted in small quantities from wood, roots and leaves from plants of the genera Platycladus
Platycladus
Platycladus is a distinct genus of evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, containing only one species, Platycladus orientalis, also known as Chinese Arborvitae or Biota. It is endemic to Northwestern China...
, Cupressus
Cupressus
The genus Cupressus is one of several genera within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypress; for the others, see cypress. It is considered a polyphyletic group...
, Taiwania
Taiwania
Taiwania is a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, formerly listed in the segregate family Taxodiaceae. It is native to eastern Asia, growing in the mountains of central Taiwan, and locally in southwest China and adjoining Myanmar and northern Vietnam. It is endangered by...
and Calocedrus
Calocedrus
Calocedrus is a genus of three species of coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae.The generic name means "beautiful cedar".-Description:...
.
The cedar oil of the ancients, in particular the Sumerians
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
and Egyptians
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, was derived from the Cedar of Lebanon, a true cedar native to the northern and western mountains of the middle east
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. The once-mighty Cedar of Lebanon forests of antiquity have been almost entirely eradicated, and today no commercial oil extraction is based on this species.
Uses=
Cedarwood oils each have characteristic woody odours which may change somewhat in the course of drying out. The crude oils are often yellowish or even darker in colour and some, such as Texas cedarwood oil (derived primarily from Juniperus ashei
Juniperus ashei
Juniperus ashei is a drought-tolerant evergreen shrub or small tree, native to northeastern Mexico and the south-central United States north to southern Missouri; the largest areas are in central Texas, where extensive stands occur...
and J. deppeana
Juniperus deppeana
Juniperus deppeana is a small to medium-sized tree reaching 10-15 m tall. It is native to central and northern Mexico and the southwestern United States...
, are quite viscous and deposit crystals on standing. They find use (sometimes after rectification
Rectified spirit
A rectified spirit, rectified alcohol, or neutral spirit is highly concentrated ethanol which has been purified by means of repeated distillation, a process that is called rectification. It typically contains 95% alcohol by volume...
) in a range of fragrance applications such as soap perfumes, household sprays, floor polishes and insecticides. Small quantities are used in microscope work as a clearing oil.
All the cedarwood oils of commerce contain a group of chemically related compounds, the relative proportions of which depend upon the species from which the oil is obtained. These compounds include cedrol and cedrene, and while they contribute something to the odour of the whole oil they are also valuable to the chemical industry for conversion to other derivatives with fragrance applications. The oils are therefore used both directly and as sources of chemical isolates.
Cedar oil was used as the base for paint
Paint
Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...
s by the ancient Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
ians. They would grind cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
compound
Chemical compound
A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...
s in a mortar and pestle
Mortar and pestle
A mortar and pestle is a tool used to crush, grind, and mix solid substances . The pestle is a heavy bat-shaped object, the end of which is used for crushing and grinding. The mortar is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone...
to produce a blue pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
. They could obtain green from copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, yellow from lead antimoniate, black from charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
, and white from gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
.
Today, cedar oil is often used for its aromatic properties, especially in aromatherapy
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine that uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person's mind, mood, cognitive function or health....
; it can also be used to renew the smell of natural cedar furniture. Cedar oil is used as an insect repellent
Insect repellent
An insect repellent is a substance applied to skin, clothing, or other surfaces which discourages insects from landing or climbing on that surface. There are also insect repellent products available based on sound production, particularly ultrasound...
, both directly applied to the skin and as an additive to sprays, candles and other products.
In India, oil from the deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara, a true cedar) has been shown to possess insecticidal
Insecticide
An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind...
and antifungal
Fungicide
Fungicides are chemical compounds or biological organisms used to kill or inhibit fungi or fungal spores. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality and profit. Fungicides are used both in agriculture and to fight fungal infections in animals...
properties and to have some potential for control of fungal deterioration of spices during storage. However, its commercial potential for this purpose remains, at present, speculative.
One of three methods of ancient Egyptian embalming
Embalming
Embalming, in most modern cultures, is the art and science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall decomposition and to make them suitable for public display at a funeral. The three goals of embalming are thus sanitization, presentation and preservation of a corpse to achieve this...
practices employs the use of cedar oil. This was a less costly method than the most well known of the ancient Egyptian practices of removing internal organs for separate preservation in canopic jars
Canopic jar
Canopic jars were used by the Ancient Egyptians during the mummification process to store and preserve the viscera of their owner for the afterlife. They were commonly either carved from limestone or were made of pottery...
. The practice
...called for the injection of cedar oil into body cavities without eviscerationEviscerationAn evisceration is the removal of the eye's contents, leaving the scleral shell and extraocular muscles intact. The procedure is usually performed to reduce pain or improve cosmesis in a blind eye, as in cases of endophthalmitis unresponsive to antibiotics...
. The body was laid in natrum or natronNatronNatron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and about 17% sodium bicarbonate along with small quantities of household salt and sodium sulfate. Natron is white to colourless when pure, varying to gray or yellow with impurities...
-- a fixed alkaliAlkaliIn chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7. The adjective alkaline is commonly used in English as a synonym for base,...
-- for the prescribed period, after which the cedar oil, which had dissolved the soft organs, was released; and the body, its flesh dissolved by the natron, was reduced to preserved skin and bones.
Until the development of synthetic immersion oil in the 1940s cedar oil was widely used for the oil immersion objective in light microscopy
Optical microscope
The optical microscope, often referred to as the "light microscope", is a type of microscope which uses visible light and a system of lenses to magnify images of small samples. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and were possibly designed in their present compound form in the...
.
Cedarwood oil is a mixture of organic compounds considered generally safe by the FDA as a food additive preservative
Preservative
A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically produced substance that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes....
. The oil is used as an antibacterial and fungicide. Studies have shown that prolonged exposure to high levels of cedarwood oil can cause liver and pulmonary toxicity. The United States EPA does not expect such effects to occur among users of currently registered products because their use and public exposure is at a much lower level and more intermittent then those in the case studies. The EPA believes there is negligible human environmental risk posed by exposure to registered cedarwood pesticide or food preservative products if used in properly prescribed manner.