Erigeron Oil

#### Erigeron Oil. Among the comparatively few essential oils which are produced exclusively from wild growing plants is the oil of Erigeron Canadensis. The plant is a weed and its original habitat is unknown to the author. The plant is known in the U.S.A. as **Fleabane**** **and it is also common in other parts of the world, except in the tropical zones. The fleabane is almost a nuisance in the corn fields in the midwestern United States and it also causes trouble in the peppermint and spearmint fields there. One fleabane plant will produce about million seeds in one season. Accordingly, the plant is considered a weed and not a utility plant. The entire overground part of the fleabane plant is steam distilled in the spearmint growing area of the midwestern United States (Michigan and Indiana). To the author's knowledge, there is no production of this oil on a commercial scale outside of the U.S.A. The annual production runs into a few tons of this oil. **Erigeron**** ****Oil**** **is a water-white or pale yellow liquid of a sweet, but very fresh-spicy, herbaceous, basil-like odor. The dryout note is peculiar, winey-herbaceous and sweet, resembling the odor of powdered licorice root. The odor also resembles that of moroccan chamomile oil (ormenis multicaulis) in its verbena-like freshness and the herbaceous, ethereal-sweet, ambra-like undertone. The taste is acrid, burning, somewhat sweet but unpleasantly biting, leaving a bitter aftertaste. The author has no experience with this oil in respect to use in flavors. The oil becomes darker and more viscous on ageing. The oil of **Erigeron Canadensis **is occasionally used in perfumes where its peculiar and quite powerful odor may contribute interesting modifications in various types of colognes, fougères, chypres, aldehydic fantasy bases, etc. The oil blends well with cardamom oil, citrus oils, coriander oil, decyl aldehyde, hydroxy-citronellal, linalool, etc. **Erigeron**** ****Oil**** **is occasionally adulterated. This is particularly true about oils which are offered in Europe where erigeron oil is frequently "doctored up" with synthetically prepared components of the oil: terpinyl acetate, d-limonene, etc. or even with cajuput oil, eucalyptus oil, etc. All these additives tend to decrease the characteristic fresh-herbaceous background notes in the odor of the natural oil.