Pimenta Leaf Oil

#### Pimenta Leaf Oil. The leaves and twiglets of the "allspice" tree (see **Pimenta Berry Oil) **are steam distilled in local stills in the growing regions to yield an essential oil called **Pimenta Leaf Oil. **Distillation takes place in various parts of the West Indies, mainly in Jamaica. Smaller quantities of slightly different oil are produced in Central America (Honduras and Guatemala) and in Venezuela. The tree grows wild in the West Indies, and leaves can be harvested all year round. The leaves look almost like clove leaves, and the essential oils of the two sorts of leaves are very similar in composition. **Pimenta Leaf Oil **is a brownish yellow or pale brownish colored liquid of dry-woody, warm-spicy, aromatic odor, reminiscent of clove leaf oil and crude eugenol. The flavor is warm and aromatic, slightly burning, but also dry and woody, almost sharp or acrid. The oil is used mainly in perfumery and for the isolation of Eugenol, its main constituent. As a perfume material, the oil represents only a modification of the odors of clove leaf oil and cinnamon leaf oil, both of which contain 85—95% eugenol. The warm-spicy eugenol note has become quite popular in fragrances for after-shave, shave cream and other products of the "men's line", etc. However, substantial quantities of pimenta leaf oil are offered on the market under the label "pimenta oil" or even as "pimenta berry oil". It usually requires some experience and a thorough organoleptic test to discriminate accurately between the two oils, particularly since they also occur mixed in all proportions from certain wholesalers. Furthermore, crude eugenol, fractions from the distillation and isolation of eugenol, redistilled or crude clove leaf oil or clove stem oil are all common adulterants in commercial lots of pimenta leaf oil. The tremendous decline in clove leaf oil prices during the late 1950's caused a significant decrease in the West Indian production of pimenta leaf oil. Even the storm and flood disaster in eastern Madagascar in April 1959 did not raise the clove leaf oil price above the level of pimenta leaf oil price. However, the latter has still a good future as a "domestic" source of eugenol for Central and South America, large areas where eugenol-bearing plants are not available in sufficient quantities (see **Ocimum Gratissimum**). Pimenta leaf oil is a very poor substitute for pimenta berry oil, and any flavorist who is familiar with the aroma of the berry oil would have great difficulty in replacing the berry **oil **with the leaf oil. The former is well known by his customers, the latter is not, and will hardly be accepted in food flavors.