Ocimum Kilimanjaricum Oil

#### Ocimum Kilimanjaricum. The essential oil which is steam distilled from the overground parts of the flowering plant **Ocimum Kilimanjaricum **is of limited interest to the perfume and flavor industry. The oil is produced irregularly and on a moderate scale in East Africa (mainly Kenya and Tanganyika; the plant is named after the famous volcano), while a regular and comparatively large-scale production takes place in India (western Bengal, Kaschmir, etc.). Production in Belgian Congo had been abandoned at the moment of the author's visit in 1955/56*.* At this place we should point out that the oil will contain camphor only if the leaves of the plant are included in the distillation material. The camphor can be partially removed from the oil by freezing. The "second" constituent of the oil is **Eugenol**, and the oil thus combines the virtues of the oils from **Ocimum Canum **(camphor type) and **Ocimum Gratissimum **(eugenol type)— (see these monographs). However, the yield of "total" essential oil (i.e. including camphor) from the plant ocimum kilimanjaricum in India has been very encouraging. The oil is a yellowish to brownish liquid of warm and aromatic, spicy-camphoraceous odor (even when the oil is "decamphorized"). Although the oil blends excellently with lavender, lavandin, rosemary, petitgrain, etc. in the old-fashioned "**Rondeletia**" perfume type, the author does not believe in a future for this oil in perfumery. The oil may serve locally as a good raw material for soap perfumes, etc., and in emergency cases as a source of natural camphor (to be isolated by freezing of the oil).