Juniperberry Oil

#### Juniperberry Oil. Commercial **Juniper**** ****Berry**** ****Oil**** **is produced by two methods: The best oil is steam distilled (or steam-and- water distilled) from the crushed, dried or partially dried, ripe berries (fruits). Occasionally water distillation is used. The greater part of all commercial juniperberry oil, however, is derived from the fermented fruits as a by-product of the central European juniper-brandy manufacturing. It should be noted that juniper berries (fruits) contain certain amounts of fixed oil, occasionally called “juniper oil” (see **Juniperberry**** ****“Resinoid”**). The shrub, **Juniperus Communis**, grows wild all over central and southern Europe, southwest Asia, northern Asia, North Africa and North America. The best berries are collected in northern Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and France. Lower grades are collected in Germany, Poland, U.S.S.R., Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, India, and Scandinavia. The gin-distillers are also large consumers of juniper fruits. Some of them still make their own distillates from juniperberry tinctures rather than using a sesquiterpeneless juniperberry oil which never gives the same “body” of flavor to the beverage. The actual production of steam-distilled juniperberry oil is surprisingly small. Substantial quantities of so-called **Juniperberry**** ****Oil **are produced by another method: The dextrose-containing juniper fruits are fermented in order to produce a popular beverage. An essential oil can be produced from the fermentation mass. This distillate, which is a mixture of flavored alcohol, water and essential oil (mainly monoterpenes and other fractions, insoluble in alcohol), is redistilled, and thus the flavored, low- proof alcohol (the beverage) is separated from the terpenic oil fraction. The latter constitutes commercial “**Juniperberry**** ****Oil”.** **Juniperberry Oil **(steam distilled from the fruits) is a water-white or very pale yellow, mobile oil, having a fresh, yet warm, rich-balsamic, woody-sweet and pine-needle-like odor. In fact, the oil of **Pinus Pumilio **(which grows in juniper- areas, too) resembles juniperberry oil very much in odor characteristics. The oil derived from the fermented fruits usually has a more turpentine-like, pinene-like odor and little or no balsamic sweetness. Its tenacity is inferior to that of the “true” oil. The fermentation oil is not suitable for flavor purposes. The flavor of steam distilled juniperberry oil is warm, slightly bitter-aromatic, balsamic and rich. The bitterness is quite persistent at all levels of dilution. It is quite typical of many perfume materials that they may present odors which give an impression of sweetness, while their flavor reveals an almost prohibitive bitterness. The suggested use level for a good juniperberry oil from selected fruit material is about 0.30 mg%. At this concentration, there is still a distinct and characteristic bitterness along with the aroma of the oil. The **Minimum**** ****Perceptible**** **is 0.05 to 0.08 mg%. The actual use level in alcoholic beverages is considerably higher than the above figure. High concentration of alcohol impairs the sense of taste. **Juniperberry**** ****Oil**** **is used in perfumery for its fresh-balsamic notes, as a modifier for various pine needle oils (with which it blends very well), with citrus oils in room spray perfumes, in ambres, fougères, chypres, after-shave fragrances, spice compositions, colognes, etc. Labdanum absolute is an excellent fixative for juniperberry oil. Other fixatives and blenders are mastic, opopanax, fir needle absolute, oakmoss products, elemi resinoid, illurin balsam, cypress oil, sage clary, borneol, nopyl acetate, abitol, lavandin oil, lavandin concrète, lovage oil, benzoin resinoid, toluresinoid, etc. In flavors, it is customary to use a sesquiterpeneless oil, produced from a high-grade true juniper- berry oil (steam distilled from the fruits). The natural (total) juniperberry oil is poorly soluble in ethyl alcohol, and the oil has a pronounced bitter taste which is often translated as “turpentine-like” by the layman. Even better for flavors is a **Juniper Berry Distillate**, e.g. a distilled, concentrated tincture in low-proof alcohol which eliminates the terpenes. As a shortcut and poorer edition of the latter product, a **Juniper Berry Aroma Distillate **may be produced from juniper berry oil, alcohol and water. An aroma-distillate is obtained by subsequent distillation and rectification of the low-proof alcoholic distillate. In flavor quality, it is inferior to the distillate made from the berries (compare: production of gin). **Juniperberry Oil **is very frequently adulterated. More justly, one could say that commercial juniperberry oil is rarely the true distillate from the berries. The most frequent additive (or substitute) is, obviously, the poor oil from the fermentation process. This oil is commercially offered under the label of juniperberry oil. Other adulterants are pinene, camphene, turpentine oil fractions, juniper wood oil (see monograph), juniper twig oil, etc. Only a thorough organoleptic evaluation will reveal a poor or adulterated oil among samples of true oils, produced from the freshly crushed fruits by steam distillation. An essential oil is distilled in Yugoslavia from fruits and twigs of **Juniperus**** ****Smreka**. The odor of this oil is somewhat lighter than that of true juniper berry oil, less ambra-sweet, less rich on a dryout. Oil of juniperus smreka is produced on a very limited scale and not yet widely known outside Yugoslavia.