Abies Alba Oil

#### Abies Alba. Synonyms: **Abies**** ****Excelsa,**** ****Abies**** ****Pectinata,**** ****Abies**** ****Picea**, "silver spruce", "white spruce". Under the present monograph only the essential oil from the needles will be described. From the cones of Abies Alba is distilled another essential oil, see **Templin Oil. Abies Alba **is a relatively small tree which grows in Austria (Tirol), Eastern France, Germany, Poland, and Yougoslavia. The tree is planted in many European countries for lumber, wood-pulp production and also for Christmas trees. The essential oil is distilled from the needles alone or from the twigs with needles. Experiments have shown, that there is but little difference in the essential oils from the two parts of the tree. The steam distillation produces a colorless or pale yellow mobile liquid of rich balsamic-sweet and pleasant oily-pinaceous fragrance. Oils from Austria are known for their outstanding quality and fine fragrance. **Abies Alba **oil finds application in perfumes for bath preparations, air-fresheners, disinfectants, fougère-colognes, soap perfumes, detergents, etc. The oil is most popular in Europe, where the demand is rarely in excess of the availability of this oil. Although the oil belongs to the group of 'low-ester" and "high-terpene" containing "fir" and spruce needle oils, it has great power, good stability and performance in compositions for the above purposes. It blends excellently with coumarin, galbanum, ionones, labdanum, lavandin, linalool, methylionones, nitromusks, oakmoss, rosemary oil, etc. Under the name of **"Fir**** ****Needle**** ****Oil"**** ****comes**** **also an oil, distilled from needles and branchlets of Picca Excelsa in Yougoslavia and Roumania. The odor of this oil is somewhat similar to that of **Abies Alba **needles oil. **Picea Excelsa **is described under its Latin name in this book. Because of frequent and extensive "cutting" and adulteration of this oil with pinene, isobornylacetate, camphene, limonene, dodecanal, decanal, palatone, etc., it is difficult to obtain reliable figures of the annual production. It is estimated, that between *5** *and 20 tons of true oil are produced annually in Europe.