Port Oxford Cedarwood Oil

#### Cedarwood Oil, Port Oxford. This oil is steam distilled from the sawdust and other waste of the wood of the "Western White Cedar", **Chamaecyparis**** ****Lawsoniana**, a tall and very decorative cypress which grows wild and abundantly in a limited area of Oregon and California states, U.S.A. The tree is cultivated for ornamental purposes all over Central Europe and in other parts of the world. Between the two world wars, the sawmills in Oregon and California produced this oil in tremendous quantities. Interest in the oil has now almost disappeared, and it is not produced on a large scale any more, if produced regularly at all. **Port Oxford Cedarwood Oil **is a mobile liquid, colorless to pale yellow or straw yellow, darkening and thickening on ageing. The odor is moderately sweet-woody, pine-oil-like, bitter fennel-like, substantially different from the odor of other cedar- wood oils. Its odor could remind of the odor of a mixture of pine oil and Virginia cedarwood oil, but the dryout of the Port Orford oil is almost herbaceous-woody, long lasting and anisic or fennel-like sweet. Since the odor type does not present any unique effect beyond its peculiar complexity of fragrance, it is most likely that this oil will slowly disappear from the perfumer's shelf. Probably the most interesting thing about the oil is the extraordinarily high content of borneol (10 to 20%). This material is sometimes hard to obtain as a synthetic chemical in the U.S.A., free from isoborneol. See also **Wormwood Oil, **section: **Mugwort, Chinese.**