Rhodium Wood Oil

#### Rhodium Wood Oil. Although this oil is hardly available in its original form any more, it deserves some attention since it was once a popular ingredient in colognes, etc. of the 1890's. **Rhodium**** ****Wood**** ****Oil**** **is distilled from the roots of **Convolvulus**** ****Scoparius**, a plant which probably originated in the Mediterranean countries, but now is found most abundantly in the Canary islands and also scattered around in Morocco. Wood from the Canary islands is distilled by steam in France, but very often, the oil sold under the name of **Rhodium Wood Oil **is a "compounded" oil, containing no distillate from rhodium root at all. This fact, and the one that the oil offers no particular perfume notes which cannot be obtained by other means, are mainly responsible for the disappearance of rhodium wood oil from the perfumery market. Oils offered today under the name of true rhodium wood oils are generally pale yellow to yellow viscous liquids of faint, but pleasant, sweet-woody, somewhat floral odor, reminiscent of nerol, nerolidol, rhodinol and linalool. The author must admit with much regret that he has had no means of confirming the authenticity of the samples which were investigated. However, they represent a fair choice of what is available today under the name of Rhodium Wood Oil. The oil could still find some use in perfumery where its sweet and tenacious notes blend well with all rose materials, lilac, muguet, Oriental bases, etc. In pharmaceutical preparations, a "rhodium wood oil" is occasionally used which is prepared from 95% copaiba oil and 5% palmarosa oil. This mixture is sold as a rat lure.