Linaloe Wood Oil

#### Linaloe Wood Oil. Linaloe wood oil, also called **Mexican**** ****Linaloe**** ****Oil,**** **is steam distilled from the wood of old and deliberately damaged trees of Bursera species, particularly **Bursera Delpechiana**. It is a common practice to include the fruits of the tree in the distillation since this increases the yield of oil considerably (see **Linaloe Seed Oil, previous **monograph). Distillation of linaloe wood oil takes place in the central and western parts of southern Mexico where the trees grow wild or replanted, partly self-propagated. The essential oil can be considered partly a pathological product since the oil content in undamaged trees is too low for an economical exploitation. Occasionally, wood from damaged (incised, lacerated, etc.) trees is shipped to the U.S.A. or Europe to be distilled. Experiments have shown that the oil yield in a modern still is far better than that from local stills. **Linaloe Wood Oil **is a pale yellow or almost colorless liquid occasionally turbid or dirty; its color may be pale orange when it is kept in poor containers (iron, rust, dirt, moisture). The odor of this oil is sweet-woody and floral, with a more or less green and oily topnote according to the quality of the oil. Very good oils are rare, and they show little or no pungent notes in the top, but have a sweet, delicate floralness which remains fairly constant and uniform throughout all stages of evaporation. In perfumery, therefore, good grades of linaloe wood oil can be used as blenders or even bases in floral perfumes, e.g. muguet, lilac, apple blossom, freesia, rose, sweet pea, etc., while the oil can find general application as a modifier for numerous floral and floral-woody perfume types. **Linaloe Wood Oil **has been exposed to persistent adulteration in the years when the oil reached its greatest popularity, i.e. before the intense competition offered by Brazilian and Peruvian **Bois de Rose Oil **and Formosan **Ho Leaf Oil **(see these monographs). With the abundance of these linalool-bearing oils, and with the appearance of low-cost synthetic Linalool in rapidly increasing quantities on the market, **Mexican**** ****Linaloe**** ****Wood**** ****Oil**** **has little or no hope of a bright future. The yields from the primitive Mexican stills are poor, and the necessity of felling entire old trees to produce an essential oil is certainly less practical than that of distilling leaves which can be stripped from live trees year after year. Seeds from Mexican linaloe trees were brought to India early in the twentieth century. See monograph on **Linaloe Seed Oil.**