Dalmatian Sage Oil

#### Sage Oil, Dalmatian. The trade distinguishes between the flavor material **Sage**** ****Oil**, the perfume material **Spanish**** ****Sage**** ****Oil**, and the perfume material **Clary**** ****Sage**** ****Oil.**** **The three oils are distilled from different species of Salvia. **Sage Oil**, usually known as **Dalmatian Sage Oil**, is steam distilled from the dried leaves of wild growing **Salvia Officinalis **in Yugoslavia. Smaller quantities are produced in Bulgaria, Turkey, Malta, France and Germany, while Cyprus sage has unfortunately vanished from the market since the house of Lanitis, in 1954, abandoned production of a large number of herb oils from this sunny and fertile Mediterranean island. The author himself enjoyed using Cyprus sage oil up to that year, and regrets very much that this oil is no longer available. In Morocco, the wild-growing local variety **Salvia Maurorum **is occasionally distilled. It yields an oil of thujone- cineole type, similar to the Dalmatian sage. **Sage**** ****Oil**** ****Spanish**** **and **Sage**** ****Clary**** ****Oil**** **are discussed in separate monographs in this work. **Dalmatian Sage Oil **is a pale yellow, mobile liquid, having a fresh and strong, warm-spicy herbaceous and camphoraceous odor, somewhat reminiscent of artemisia vulgaris oil. The flavor is equally cineolic-herbaceous, warm and burning. A peculiar sweetness, reminiscent of tansy flowers, is characteristic in the top note of the Dalmatian sage oil. The oil finds extensive use as a flavor material: in liqueurs, canned meat, spice sauces, pickles, sausages, etc. The dried leaves are among the most popular culinary herbs in southern Europe and the U. S. A., and they are an important ingredient in the flavoring of Vermouth (wine) and other "bitters" or "aperitifs" in spite of the content of **Thujone **in the leaves (see below). In perfumery, **Dalmatian**** ****Sage**** ****Oil**** **is used for its power, partly as a topnote material, partly for its relatively good tenacity. The fadeout of the odor of the oil is sweet-herbaceous and very pleasant. The oil blends well with lavandin, rosemary, citrus oils, bois de rose oil, etc.; it introduces fresh notes in fougères, chypres, aldehydic perfume bases, colognes and spicy "men's fragrances" for after-shave lotions, etc. **Dalmatian Sage Oil **is occasionally adulterated with other essential oils which contain similar odorants such as cedar leaf oil (the so-called thuja oil, distilled from the leaves and twigs of the Virginian cedar **Juniperus**** ****Virginiana**). Other adulterants include thuja oil fractions or fractions of Spanish sage oil, rosemary oil, various artemisia oils, etc. In turn, Dalmatian sage oil finds its way into other essential oils, partly as an adulterant, partly as a necessary component in the composing of artificial essential oils such as tansy, wormwood, etc. Like most other spices and herbs, **Dalmatian Sage **has also been marketed as an extract for flavoring purposes. In the case of Dalmatian sage, however, the extract—sometimes called **Oleoresin **of **Sage**— is a kind of a by-product. The exhausted plant material (after steam distillation of essential oil) is extracted with boiling hot water (compare to **Fir**** ****Needle**** ****Extract**). The aqueous extract is evaporated and used with or without the essential oil in flavoring extracts. The aqueous extract is not a true oleoresin, but it does contain some flavoring matter (but no **Thujone**), and it greatly improves the tenacity and stability of sage oil in spice blends. Strange as it may seem, **Dalmatian**** **Sage is a very popular herb for food seasoning, although part of its flavor is due to the presence of **Thujone, **a ketone which is also present in wormwood oil and which was the main reason for the banning of "absinth" in France some years ago. **Thujone **was decreed toxic and harmful to human beings. Due to its content of thujone, Dalmatian sage oil is considered somewhat toxic and skin-irritating. The fairly good bactericidal value of the oil is illustrated by the fact that Dalmatian sage herb infusions are still used as effective mouth washes and gargles in household medicine. **Dalmatian**** ****Sage**** ****Oil**** **is readily available, and is produced in quantities of five to fifteen metric tons per year. The dried leaves rank among the quantitatively largest condiment herbs imported into the U.S.A.