Sweet Marjoram Oil

#### Marjoram Oil, sweet. The poultry seasoner, the dried herb of **Origanum**** ****Majorana**, also called **Majorana**** ****Hortensis**** **when cultivated is well known to housewives all over the world. The plant is probably originated in the eastern Mediterranean countries, and is now cultivated in central and southern Europe (Bulgaria, etc.) as well as in North Africa. The plant grown in the United States is used as a culinary herb and not for the production of essential oil. It should be mentioned at this point that the outstanding majority of all so-called marjoram *oil *used in the U.S.A. and elsewhere is **Spanish Wild Marjoram **(see the following monograph), derived from a completely different plant. **Sweet**** ****Marjoram**** ****Oil**** **is steam distilled from the dried leaves and flowering tops of the plant (origanum majorana). Distillation takes place in France, Tunisia, Morocco, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany and experimentally in Turkey. French and Tunisian oils are considered among the best. Sweet marjoram oil is a pale yellow or pale amber colored, rather mobile liquid of a warm-spicy, aromatic-camphoraceous and woody odor, reminiscent of nutmeg and cardamom. The flavor is spicy-warm, aromatic and somewhat bitter. It serves little or no purpose to mention an average use level or a Minimum Perceptible since the author has experienced huge differences in flavor strength among the various qualities of oils commercially offered. For those who are familiar with the odor of Melaleuca Alternifolia (see monograph), it is interesting to note the similarity in odor between this oil and sweet marjoram oil. Sweet marjoram oil is used in spice compounds *for** *the flavoring of meat-sauces, canned foods, vinegars, etc., and occasionally in perfumery to introduce a fresh, slightly medicinal-aromatic, warm note in fougères, colognes, Oriental bases, etc. As mentioned above, the annual production of sweet marjoram oil is very limited, and there is no strong demand for this oil. Adulteration takes place, usually with terpineol and fractions from the production of turpentine-terpineol, or with the oil of melaleuca alternifolia. Plain mislabelling is also common in the sense that Spanish, wild marjoram oil, or mixtures of this oil and the sweet marjoram oil, origanum oil, etc. are labelled "oil of marjoram, sweet"