Pine Oil

#### Pine Oil. True Pine Oil is obtained by steam distillation of heartwood and stump wood of **Pinus**** ****Palustris**** **and other **Pinus**** ****Species**. The crude oil is then submitted to fractional distillation under vacuum or steam distillation at atmospheric pressure to yield **Pine Oil**. The lighter fractions from this distillation are known as **Wood Turpentine **(see monograph on **Turpentine**). It is customary to extract the wood chips after the steam distillation since the high-boiling and main constituents of **Pine Oil **do not distil readily with steam. A hydrocarbon (a petroleum distillate) is generally used for the extraction of the steam-exhausted wood chips. The hydrocarbon extract is evaporated, and the oil part is submitted to fractionated distillation under vacuum. The residue from this distillation is rosin. All told, true **Pine Oil **comprises less than 2% of all distillable and extractable oil-matter from the wood. The main part is wood turpentine. The trees are felled for lumber, and the wood chips for distillation are obtained only from the waste wood. **Pine**** ****Oil**** **is a water-white to pale amber colored, somewhat viscous liquid; it has a sweet, pine-woody, somewhat balsamic-anisic odor with an increasing sweetness in its dryout, followed by a somewhat resinous-bitter undertone according to the type and grade of oil. Production takes place mainly in the United States of America, particularly in the eastern states from Florida to Maine. Significant amounts of pine oil from related Pinus species are produced in China. So-called Pine Oils are produced in numerous countries, but these products often consist of fractions or by-products from the terpineol production, starting from alpha-pinenerich turpentine (European terpineol). These pine oils may present quite similar olfactory, chemical and physical characteristics when compared to the true "natural" pine oil, and their application is frequently that of a replacement for "natural" pine oil. **Pine Oil **is used extensively in medicine (in veterinary disinfectant sprays), in paint manufacturing (anti-skinning agent), in insecticides as a solvent-carrier, in disinfectant detergents of the American "Lestoil" type (solvent-cleanser), in the mining industry for flotation, in perfumes for soaps and detergents (pine fragrances, low-cost perfumes with citronella oils, ocotea pretiosa oil, lavandin, etc.), as a starting material for the isolation of natural terpineol (in the U.S.A.), estragole, etc. for the production of "synthetic" anethole, etc., etc. In perfumery, **Pine**** ****Oil**** **blends well with rosemary, cedarwood, cedarleaf, ocotea, citronella, bois de rose, ho leaf oil, camphene, isobornyl acetate, coumarin, oakmoss products, cyclohexane-derivatives, etc. The main constituents of pine oil are sesquiterpene alcohols (terpineol in particular), ketones. ethers such as estragole, fenchone, fenchyl alcohol borneol, terpineol, etc. all in smaller amounts but of considerable importance to the odor and disinfectant properties of the oil. Strictly speaking, the oil is almost terpeneless and it is accordingly soluble in alcohol without turbidity. The annual production of **Pine Oil **runs into several thousand metric tons in the U. S. A. alone. The figure is close to 100,000 tons if we include all types of pine oils and related products derived from the distillations and extractions of the wood chips from the **Pinus Palustris **and other **Pinus**** **species. One of the largest outlets for pine oil is in the paper industry where the oil is used in the manufacture of coated paper. The perfume industry absorbs only a few percent of the total production. The appearance and success of the "Lestoil" type household cleansers in the U.S.A. have recently made pine oil an almost "hard-to- get" article. In many uses, however, "synthetic pine oil can justly replace the natural oil.