Araucaria Oil

#### Araucaria Oil. **Araucaria Oil **is steam distilled from the wood of a comparatively small tree, **Callitropsis**** ****Araucarioldes**, which grows wild and abundantly in New Caledonia (South Pacific). The tree is related to thuja, cypress and sandarac trees, but it seems to be known only in the above small area. The wood is distilled in western Australia, far away from its origin. **Araucaria**** ****Oil**** **is solid at room temperature, but if melted, it may remain supercooled as a very viscous liquid for a considerable length of time. The solid oil is not quite homogeneous, often grainy in texture. It is very pale yellow to olive-green or of a brown color. The oil may contain some iron. Its odor is delicately woody, but also rich and sweet (a rare combination), almost floral like nerolidol or cabreuva oil. It has notes in common with amyris oil, bois de rose, copaiba, good guaiacwood oil, and the sesquiterpene fractions from Java type of citronella oil. **Araucaria**** ****Oil**** **is an excellent fixative among the groups of "so-called" fixatives (see monograph on **Fixatives**, Part One of this book). The oil is also used as a starting material for the isolation of Eudesmol, a sesquiterpene alcohol. The acetate of this alcohol, **Eudesmyl Acetate**, is available and it has been used as a replacement for linalyl acetate. **Araucaria Oil **is a very low-cost perfume material, but it has not yet found extensive use beyond that of a modifier-fixer in soap perfumes, e.g. mimosa, chypre, fougère, lily-of-the-valley, lilac, etc. It blends excellently with sage clary, methylionones, hydroxycitronellal, linalool, etc. The oil is not produced on a large scale, but it is freely available in smaller lots, directly or indirectly from the producer in western Australia.