Lippia Carviodora Oil

#### Lippia Carviodora. English botanists have been busy in East Africa where the flora of Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Somaliland has been thoroughly investigated. The author found the labiate **Lippia**** ****Carviodora**** **growing wild in Kenya, but the plant is also cultivated experimentally to facilitate harvesting and distillation of the essential oil. Oil of **Lippia**** ****Carviodora**** **is steam distilled from the flowering tops of the plant, but if increased production becomes important, the leaves undoubtedly will also be distilled since their oil is almost identical to that obtained from the flowers. The oil is pale yellow to brownish-yellow, rather mobile, and possessing an odor which can hardly be described without the use of the term **Caraway**. Except for dill seed oil, no other essential oil is so strikingly similar to caraway as the oil from Lippia Carviodora. It is an obvious source of a caraway-spearmint type of flavor oil for African countries (chewing gum, toothpaste, etc.), and may also find some application in perfumery since this oil is surprisingly stable in soaps. It has great odor-power, and equals caraway oil in this respect. Its flavor is less refined, but through rectification, the author believes this drawback could be removed. Production of lippia carviodora oil is still on an experimental scale, but the oil should have a solid future in Africa's huge, local markets. The oil is not offered as a regular item by European or American essential oil houses. It has nothing in particular to offer in countries where spearmint, caraway and synthetic carvone is freely available. See also **Lippia**** ****Daunensis**.