Lebanon Cedarwood Oil

#### Cedarwood Oil, Lebanon. The world famous and antique, perhaps thousand- year-old cedars of Lebanon are finally protected by law against felling or any kind of exploitation. The tree, **Cedrus**** ****Libani,**** **grows wild in the mountains of Lebanon and in the nearby island of Cyprus. Although the wood—and thereby indirectly the essential oil—from this tree is one of the oldest known perfume materials, the oil is no more available. There are to-day only a few—if any—perfumers who have ever seen and smelled a true Lebanon cedarwood oil; however, the oil is mentioned here for the sake of honor and veneration to this distinguished old material. The oils which are offered to-day under the name of Lebanon cedarwood oil are most likely oils, distilled from the wood of Cedrus Atlantica, Manetti. This tree is known as the Atlas Cedar and it grows in great number in Morocco and Algeria (the Atlas mountains). The essential oil is produced regularly, see monograph on **Cedarwood Oil, Atlas**. According to 50-year-old descriptions, the true Lebanon cedarwood oil was a yellow liquid of a strong, cedarleaf-like, grassy odor. If this is true, then the oil must have been quite different from other cedarwood oils, including to-day's Atlas cedarwood oil. However, the technique of distilling high-boiling essential oils has improved significantly during the past half century, and it is likely that the oil would turn out to-day with an odor altogether different from what the above description says. The author is not old enough to have any personal experience with true **Lebanon**** ****Cedarwood**** ****Oil, **but he owes his thanks to a very high authority for information on this subject.