Spanish Wild Marjoram Oil

#### Marjoram Oil, wild (Spanish). One of the most confused areas of botanical perfumery nomenclature is that of **Calamintha**** **— **Marjoram **— **Origanum **— **Thyme **— **Verbena**. For many decades, outstanding authors and authorities have done their best to straighten out this confusion, but some suppliers continue to mislabel their materials, overlooking all the efforts made to establish correct names. We meet this sad fact with respect to resinoids also. The *so-called** ***"Wild"**** ****Marjoram**** **is the common garden herb, **Origanum**** ****Vulgare,**** ***cultivated** *all over the world. An essential oil is distilled from this plant in southern U.S.S.R., Bulgaria and Italy. See also **Origanum**** **and **Thyme.** **Spanish Wild Marjoram Oil **is water-and-steam distilled from the flowering herb of Thymus Masticina and other Thymus species with similar odor. The plant grows wild in Spain and is distilled locally. The production of this oil is quite significant, and fluctuates between *5** *and 20 metric tons per year. Spanish (wild) marjoram oil is an orange-amber to pale orange-yellow colored, mobile liquid of strong, fresh, slightly sweet-spicy, aromatic, but predominantly eucalyptus-like, camphoraceous odor. Its flavor is warm, slightly burning, bittersweet, occasionally with a cool, aromatic-medicinal aftertaste. Huge variations in the qualities of different lots of this oil make it meaningless to report any suggested use level concentration. The oil is used extensively as a flavoring agent in meat sauces, mixed spices for soups, etc., but has, in the author's opinion, little or nothing in common with **Sweet Marjoram Oil **(see previous monograph). Frankly, the author cannot see how in the world the former can be used as a substitute for the latter. But this is just another case of a "matter of opinion" which is everyday fare for perfumers and flavorists. **Spanish**** ****Wild**** ****Marjoram**** ****Oil**** **can hardly expect to find much application in perfumery. Its effects and constitution do not offer any particular value to recommend it to the perfumer