Elemi

#### Elemi. **Elemi**** **"gum" is a natural oleoresin in the subgroup of turpentines. It consists almost entirely of resin and essential oil. The term "gum" is thus a misnomer. Elemi is an exudation of a pathological product from the tree, **Canarium Commune, **and other species of **Canarium**** **which grow wild and, to a lesser degree, cultivated in the Philippine islands. The tree belongs to the same family as do those which yield myrrh, olibanum, opopanax and Indian linaloe. A mutual feature of these plants is that each of them is known or cultivated in only a comparatively small part of the world and never widely distributed. **Elemi**, however, is quite abundant in the Philippines, and it is one of the most inexpensive sources of fixative resinoids. The annual production (harvesting) of **Elemi**** **runs into several hundred metric tons, most of which ends up in perfumes, etc. **Crude Elemi **is a semi-solid, pale-yellow, waxyhoneylike mass, usually containing numerous woodsplinters, bark pieces, insect debris, dirt and earth, etc. Elemi is graded on the bulking place (locally), and it is possible to get lots which are quite clean, dirt-free and almost water-free. The odor is very fresh, terpeney, peppery-lemony, with a woody-balsamic background note. The odor bears some similarity to that of dill weed oil. **Elemi Resinoid **is prepared by extracting the crude elemi with a volatile solvent, and removing the latter in vacuum after proper filtration. Acetone gives a very high yield and is a very good solvent for elemi. The acetone-resinoid is pale yellow, and soon shows white masses of crystals separating in the soft, slowly solidifying resinoid. Benzene gives a lower yield, and the odor of this solvent is more difficult to remove from the resinoid. Ethyl alcohol is a comparatively poor solvent for elemi, but some perfumers prefer to extract only once with one or two parts of ethyl alcohol. It will be necessary to filtrate the extract before it cools off. A smaller yield of resinoid is thus obtained, but it presents the heart of the fragrance of elemi in a more concentrated form: fewer monoterpenes, resin acids, sesquiterpenes, etc., and higher concentration of the rare but important oxygenated components of elemi. One could call this product **Elemi Resin Absolute**. This is a very interesting fixative for artificial bergamot, lemon, lime, etc., as well as for the various verbena compositions, e.g. eau de verveine bases and other cologne types. In lavender colognes, fougères, spicy colognes, etc., it simultaneously introduces freshness and fixation. For many of these purposes, one can omit evaporating the alcohol and use the concentrated extract ("tincture") as is. The very high content of essential oil in **Elemi**** **is not always an advantage, and the factories that produce *elemi oil** *(see following monograph) will have a useful pot residue when they have distilled the essential oil out of the crude elemi. Various specialties are based on this residue.