Calamus Oil

#### Calamus Oil. **Calamus Oil **is steam distilled from the rhizomes (underground stems) of the wild growing or cultivated **Acorus Calamus**, a perennial plant which is known in the U. S. A. as "Sweet Flag" or **"Sweet Root", "Sweet Myrtle", "Sweet Cinnamon", "Sweet Cane", **etc. The very decorative plant grows wild all over the swampy areas of the temperate zones in Europe, Asia, and America, along brooks, rivers, lakes, etc. The rhizomes can be dried without a substantial loss of essential oil provided they are kept unpeeled. Distillation may thus take place far away from the origin of the rhizomes. The principal producers of calamus rhizomes are: Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, USSR, India, Holland, U.S.A. and Japan. Japanese rhizomes produce an essential oil with a more medicinal odor, and these rhizomes are less popular for the production of flavor and perfume oils. Polish and Yugoslavian oils are often pale colored and they display a delightfully sweet and uniform, lasting odor. **Calamus Oil **is generally a pale yellow to pale brown, viscous liquid of a warm, woody-spicy and pleasant odor with increasingly sweet afternotes and great tenacity. Poorer oils show more or less pronounced camphoraceous or cineolic notes. The odor of good oils bears some resemblance to the odor of dried milk or sweet leather, slightly creamy-nutty. Typical laymen-expressions for the odor of calamus oil at the first experience with this oil are: "milk-truck odor" or "shoe-repair shop odor", etc. These expressions, whether the perfumer agrees or not, can often be more helpful in an odor description than any of the usual professional phrases. The flavor of **Calamus Oil **is equally warmspicy, yet slightly bitter with a slowly growing, pungent aftertaste. The suggested use-level is 0.10 to 2.00 mg%. The Minimum Perceptible is 0.04 to 0.10 mg **%**** **Calamus oil is usually a minor component in flavor or perfume compositions. The main constituent of **Calamus**** ****Oil**** **is a phenolether, **Asarone,**** **which is odorless and tasteless. As we could expect, a "de-asaronized" calamus oil has been prepared experimentally. The author has no personal experience with this concentrated oil. Calamus oil is occasionally adulterated with amyris oil, copaiba balsam, d-limonene, cedarwood fractions, sesquiterpene fractions from various essential oils, etc. However, the greatest variations in the quality of calamus oil are often due to difference in the botanical starting material. Dried roots produce a distinctly different type of oil, but the essential oil from fresh roots is not nearly as common. From a perfumery point of view, the author would definitely prefer the oils from fresh roots, particularly those of Polish or Yugoslavian origin. They can not substitute oils from dried roots in a perfume or flavor formula, but they offer a much wider field of application to the perfumer and the flavorist. **Calamus**** ****Oil**** **is useful in perfumes of the woody- oriental type, in leather-bases, ambres, etc. It blends excellently with cananga, cinnamon, costus, labdanum, olibanum, patchouli, ionones, and methylionones, cis-para-tertiary butylcyclohexanyl acetate, nitromusks, grisambrol, and cedarwood derivatives, etc. In flavors, the oil finds some application with cardamom, angelica, ginger, etc. in spice blends and flavors for alcoholic beverages. The annual production of **Calamus**** ****Oil**** **is adjustable to demands. It is estimated that more than one metric ton is produced annually in India. The European production may be slightly smaller at the present time. The botanical material is abundantly available.