Cajuput Oil

#### Cajuput Oil. Cajuput oil or cajeput oil is steam distilled from the fresh leaves and twigs of a medium-sized tree. **Melaleuca Minor **and possibly other species of **Melaleuca**. The botanical source was earlier known as **Melaleuca**** ****Leucadendron**. The tree was planted many years ago in Florida, U. S. A. and grows now wild in abundance in that state. It is locally known as "**Punk**** ****Tree**". No essential oil is produced from the American cajuput trees. The cajuput tree is occasionally named "tea- tree" or "ti-tree" on the islands between Australia and Malaya, the Indonesian archipelago, in the Philippines, etc. where the tree grows abundantly. In Malaya and in the Philippines, the name "kaju-puti" means "white wood", referring to the color of the lumber from this tree. The essential oil is distilled from material collected from wild-growing trees in the Moluccas in the eastern part of Indonesia. A large number of primitive, native stills produce between 75 and 200 metric tons per year of cajuput oil. Only a small fraction of this production reaches Europe and the U.S.A. Local consumption is quite substantial since great medicinal effects are attributed to the oil among the Eastern people. **Cajuput**** ****Oil**** **is a colorless, pale yellow, greenish or turquoise-colored, mobile liquid of powerful. fresh, eucalyptuslike, camphoraceous odor and a burning-aromatic taste. Characteristic are the almost fruity-sweet body notes and the soft tones in the dryout. The green color is not an indication that the oil is genuine. This was earlier assumed. and many price lists emphasized that the green color was synonymous with genuineness. Apart from its use as a general household remedy for colds, throat diseases, pains, headaches, etc. in the Far East, the **Cajuput Oil **has found very little use in Europe and America. Its main constituents are identical to those of the pharmaceutical eucalyptus oils; thus, cajuput oil does not present any advantages over eucalyptus, save for the slightly milder-sweeter odor and flavor. In throat lozenges, gargles, etc., where the oil is often used in combination with other flavoring materials, it could easily be replaced by the cheaper eucalyptus oil or a combination of eucalyptus oil (pharmaceutical) with small amounts of terpinyl acetate, terpinyl propionate and higher esters of terpineol. See also Niaouli **Oil.**