Cascarilla Oil

#### Cascarilla Oil. This oil is steam distilled from the dried bark of Croton Eluteria and possibly other Croton species, small trees which grow in the West Indies, probably originally from the Bahama Islands. The Bahamas are the main producers of cascarilla bark on a commercial scale. Smaller amounts come from Cuba. The bark is dried and freed from any adherent sapwood or heartwood, but it is not distilled locally. The bark is sold to the large botanical houses and drug store suppliers. Alcoholic tinctures or extracts are prepared pharmaceutically, and are used as flavor materials, as a tonic additive or as a so-called "bitter". In Europe, mainly in France and England, and also in the U.S.A., small quantities of essential oil are produced from the imported cascarilla bark. **Cascarilla**** **Oil is a pale yellow to greenish- yellow or dark amber colored liquid of strong spicy-aromatic, warm-woody, slightly peppery odor reminiscent of nutmeg, myrtle, melaleuca alternifolia, hyssop and other spices or culinary herbs. Its topnote is not exactly pleasant, but the unusual diffusiveness and power of this oil places it among the "trace" components in perfumes. The flavor of the oil is somewhat bitter, burning but pleasantly spicy and quite powerful. Suggested use level is 0.10 to 0.50 mg% and the **Minimum Perceptible **is 0.02 to 0.04 mg%. The very complex note of spiciness and the warm, woody undertone has intrigued many perfumers to use **Cascarilla Oil **in high-class perfumes. It was even claimed that "l'origan" contained this oil as one of the "key" materials (if one can use such an expression at all about a creation). But the oil does present interesting notes in chypre bases, "tabac"-types, Oriental perfumes, "men's fragrances", fantasy colognes, etc. It blends well with nutmeg, pepper, pimenta berry oil, sage oil dalmatian, oakmoss products, quinoline derivatives, cedrenol, coumarin, etc. Its power is often underestimated. In flavors, the oil has found use in tobacco- aromas, in liqueurs as a "piquant" additive and in tonic wines and bitters. The oil is produced on a very limited scale only, and its high price and limited area of botanical origin create problems of meeting the demand when significant quantities are called for.