Litsea Cubeba Oil

#### Litsea Cubeba. The Chinese "**May Chang**" tree of the laurel family has been known for its fragrant flowers, fruits and leaves for a long time. But it was not until the early 1950's that the essential oil steam- distilled from the small, pepperlike fruits (for which the name Cubeba probably was attached to the botanical name) became more widely known, although it is still not available in all countries of the world. The small tree**, Litsea Cubeba**, grows in Eastern Asia, former Indochina, and is cultivated to a minor extent in Formosa and Japan. Today, China produces substantial quantities of this oil, the annual output probably exceeding 50 metric tons, and still increasing. Only a small part of the production is exported. The oil is irregularly available in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and it offers strong competition to lemongrass oil, even in the cost. Oil of **Litsea Cubeba **is a pale yellow, mobile oil of intensely lemon-like, fresh and sweet odor, with a soft and sweet-fruity, uniform dryout. There are few or no "fatty-grassy" methyl heptenone notes detectable. This is where the oil of litsea cubeba has a definite advantage over lemon- grass oil. The citral contents of the two oils are almost equal. However, lemongrass oil has a superior odor-tenacity due to its "heavy" sesquiterpene-part, with a tone-out of sweet and moderately pleasant notes. Furthermore, the oil of Litsea Cubeba has also a pleasant taste, and a rectified oil could be used in flavor work as a modifier for lemon and lime flavors, and as a general freshener in fruit flavors. For use in perfumes, litsea cubeba oil could replace lemon- grass oil to a certain degree, but the Chinese oil would probably find better use in artificial verbena type bases, colognes, household sprays, air fresheners, etc. It blends well with all the citrus oils, petitgrain oils, rosemary oil, lavandin, camphor- sassafras oils, ocotea pretiosa oil, bois de rose oil, decyl alcohol, geraniol, citronellol, nerol and countless other natural and synthetic perfume materials. The oil has very little fixative power and needs clever blending and fixation for successful use in soap perfumes. Oil of **Litsea Cubeba **serves as a source of **Citral **in China. A related tree, **Litsea Citrata, **is planted as a windbreaker in Chinese tea-groves. The leaves of this tree yield an essential oil upon distillation. This oil contains certain amounts of citral, but not enough for economic isolation of this material. The literature often confuses the two oils or the two trees which are considered distinctly different species according to authoritative botanical works. It is very likely, however, that the Chinese name "**May-Chang**" was originally applied to the **Litsea**** ****Citrata**.