Celery Seed Oil

#### Celery Seed Oil. This oil is produced by steam distillation of the fruits (seed) of either wild or cultivated Apium Graveolens, the celery plant. This plant is cultivated in France, India, Holland, Hungary, and China, and, to a smaller extent in the U.S.A. Distillation takes place in all these countries. Indian seed being freely available on the market and frequently preferred for distillation. It is customary to crush the seed prior to distillation, but some distillers do not comminute the seed prior to distillation. Celery seed, like most other fruits of the umbellifer family, contain substantial amounts of palmitic acid and related fatty acids. These are volatile with steam and may withhold some essential oil in solution and emulsion. The annual production of celery seed oil has increased considerably, and is estimated to be between 10 and 50 tons. Most of this is used in the spice industry where all kinds of foods and food additives are flavored with celery: soups, meats, sauces, pickles, vegetable juices, etc. The oil substitutes for the spice in many cases. More recently, the Celery Oleoresin (see next monograph) has replaced the essential oil in food flavors, particularly in meat sauces, canned foods and juices, etc. **Celery Seed Oil **is a pale yellow to orange yellow liquid. Its odor is spicy-warm, sweet and rich, "soup-like", longlasting and powerful, slightly fatty, typical of the odor of the seed (fruit) but less fresh than the odor of the celery plant. The flavor is equally warm and spicy, somewhat burning and very powerful. Celery seed oil is one of the most diffusive odors and one of the most penetrating flavors. The average use level of this oil in flavors would be somewhere between 0.05 and 0.50 mg%, but the **Minimum Perceptible **is incredibly low: 0.001 to 0.002 mg%. In other words, the typical celery flavor is perceptible in a dilution of one part of celery seed oil in one hundred million parts of a neutral liquid medium. Minor quantities of selery seed oil are used in pharmaceutical preparations where the oil is said to exert a sedative effect. Consequently, the most important ingredients in celery seed oil are named **Sedanolide**** **and **Sedanolic Acid Anhydride**. Although present only to the extent of one percent or less of the oil, these materials actually determine the power of the odor and flavor of celery seed oil. The two materials are available as synthetic chemicals. The main constituents of celery seed oil is the monoterpene, d-limonene, and the sesquiterpene, selinene. The former is the most common adulterant or diluent found in commercial lots of celery seed oil (in a too high percentage). **Maraniol **(4-methyl-7-ethoxy cumarin) and **Cyclotene **(2-hydroxy-3-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1- one) are occasionally found in celery seed oil. These materials are not natural constituents of the oil, but they are added to fortify or enrich poorer oils (e.g. limonene-diluted oils). In perfumery, celery seed oil is used very frequently, but only in very small amounts. Used skillfully, it can impart warm notes in floral and Oriental compositions, in lavender bouquets, in modern fantasy and aldehydic perfumes, etc. Carelessly used, it may easily ruin a perfume. Its diffusive power and great odor tenacity should not be underestimated. Various oils distilled from other parts of the celery plant are also available on the market under the name of **Celery Seed Oil **or **Celery Oil**. However, the true seed oil is the one with the highest content of the above mentioned "key" materials which give celery seed oil its particular effectiveness in perfumes and flavors. All other celery oils have less of this special effect. An oil distilled from the entire plant, **Celery Herb Oil, **is also available, but should be considered as another spice oil or a "culinary herb oil", representative of the flavor of the entire plant; it can not be regarded a replacement for celery seed oil. The herb oil has less strength or power, but more freshness than the seed oil. The latter being more expensive, it may be adulterated with the herb oil or with an essential oil distilled from the waste material from the cleaning of the seed (so-called **Celery Chaff Oil**.)