Odour
Warm, woody-spicy, camphoraceous-cineolic in its initial notes, later sweet and warm, very tenacious. Does not present the lemon-orange-like note found in ginger oil, but apart from this, the odor is strikingly resemblant to that of ginger oil (particularly oil of African ginger).
Flavour
Equally warm-spicy, but somewhat bitter in its predominant, camphoraceous note which is accompanied by a slightly biting-bitter aftertaste. In a way, it is a poor edition of ginger, but the zedoaria oil does present some attractive flavor notes which are not immediately perceptible in ginger oil.
Notes
One of the oldest known distilled oils. Has lost most of its importance in pharmacy and the perfume industry has very little interest. May slowly disappear from the perfumery market. Importance in flavors is rapidly decreasing.
Full Arctander text
#### Zedoaria Oil.
A perennial plant of the family Zingiberaceae, **Curcuma**** ****Zedoaria,**** **is a native of Ceylon, Indonesia and the East Indian islands. The plant grows wild, and is also cultivated since its rhizomes are used locally as a household spice. Furthermore, the leaves are occasionally used, but their flavor is entirely different from that of the rhizomes. The leaves, when crushed, smell somewhat lemongrasslike and fresh, while the rhizomes have a warm- spicy, woody and camphoraceous odor.
The essential oil is distilled from the dried rhizomes by steam. Little or no oil is produced in the growing areas, while smaller quantities are distilled in Europe from imported roots. Like many other spice oils, **Zedoaria**** ****Oil**** **belongs to the oldest known distilled oils. It has now lost most of its importance in pharmacy, and the perfume industry has very little interest in this oil. It is still used to some extent in flavors.
**Zedoaria Oil **is a viscous liquid of olive-brown to greenish-amber color, often hazy or opalescent. Its odor is warm, woody-spicy, camphoraceous-cineolic in its initial notes, later sweet and warm, very tenacious. It does not present the lemon- orange-like note which is found in ginger oil (after proper ageing), but apart from this, the odor of zedoaria oil is strikingly resemblant to that of ginger oil (particularly oil of African ginger).
The flavor is equally warm-spicy, but somewhat bitter in its predominant, camphoraceous note which is accompanied by a slightly biting-bitter aftertaste. In a way, it is a poor edition of ginger, but the zedoaria oil does present some attractive flavor notes which are not immediately perceptible in ginger oil. **Zedoaria Oil **is used, although very rarely, in spicy flavor blends, and also as an appetizing tonic in aromatic bitters. In perfumes, the oil could find some use in the powdery- Oriental types, ambre types, chypres, etc. It blends well with lavandin, coumarin, clove, ionones, cedarwood derivatives, bay leaf oil, terpinyl acetate, ocotea pretiosa oil, isobornyl acetate, etc.
**Zedoaria**** ****Oil**** **is not produced regularly, and it may slowly disappear from the perfumery market. Its importance in flavors is also rapidly decreasing.