Full Arctander text
#### Walnut Leaf Oil.
Perfumers who have owned or seen walnut trees, will probably have wondered why the delicious fragrance of the leaves has not been exploited and made accessible for the industry in the form of an essential oil, an absolute, or the like.
The essential oil of the leaves of **Juglans**** ****Regia**, the walnut tree, has been produced in several European countries, e.g. Germany and France, but the oil is presently not commercially available. A few, rare, users may have the oil or an absolute from the leaves prepared for special purposes. With the abundance of walnut trees in the south of France, Germany, Italy and southeastern Europe, it is conceivable that the oil could become a regular, commercially available product, if sufficient interest were in evidence.
The leaves of the walnut tree are particularly fragrant in the mid-summer when the fruits are still small (pea-size to cherry-size). The leaves are frequently used as an insect repellant by the local population where the walnut trees grow, and where flies or mosquitoes are a nuisance at night. A few leaves or a twig at the headpiece of one's bed should keep the insects away.
**Walnut Leaf Oil **is a pale yellow, mobile liquid of a powerful, warm-spicy, sweet and rich tealeaf like odor with a labdanum-like, intensely herbaceous-sweet, balsamic undertone. The odor bears some resemblance to nutmeg, ginger, myrtle, laurel berry and Moroccan chamomile. The author has no experience with respect to the chemical composition of this oil but, judging from the odor, cineole, myrcene, methyl eugenol, geraniol, etc. could be some of the components. The characteristic labdanum-like sweetness must, however, derive from materials other than those suggested here.
**Walnut Leaf Absolute **is reported produced upon demand in France, but the author has no personal experience with this material. The essential oil of walnut leaf could find use in colognes, chypres, aldehydic bases, fougères, etc. where it might well introduce fresh topnotes and a warm, rich, natural body, roundness and fixation at higher concentrations. It blends very well with citrus oils, lavender, spice oils, linalool, coumarin, pine fragrances, labdanum, oakmoss products, nerol, vetiver oil, etc., and it would no doubt be an interesting "carrier-note" in a "men's fragrance" for after-shave lotions or the like.
**Walnut Leaf Oil **could become an interesting flavor material since it blends extremely pleasantly with sage oils, nutmeg and clove, pimenta berry, laurel leaf, etc. for meat sauces, pickle spice blends, seasonings, etc.