Siam Wood Oil

#### Siam Wood Oil. Before World War II, significant amounts of this oil were produced in France from wood imported from the former Indochina. Various cypress trees from the mountainous regions of northern Indochina were used for their fragrant wood in the manufacture of finer woodcarvings, handcarved figures, boxes, etc. Waste wood from this production was steam distilled (trunk wood and roots) to yield an essential oil, known as **Siam**** ****Wood**** ****Oil**. The oil was also known as **Fokiena Oil, **since one of the sources of wood was the tree **Fokiena Hodginsii**, while another well known Fareastern species is Dacrydium Elatum, both belonging to the Conifers (see also **Huon**** ****Pine**** ****Wood**** ****Oil).**** **It is most likely, however, that the greater part of all **Siam Wood Oils **consisted of oil, distilled from **Fokiena Hodginsii **(the tree originated in the province of Fokien or Fukien in Indochina). **Siam Wood Oil **(from Fokiena hodginsii) is a pale yellow to amber-colored, rather viscous liquid of a very pleasant, woody-balsamic, opopanax-cedar-like, mild and almost floral odor which tones out in a cleaner, woody note, reminiscent of the odor from rectified Texas cedar-wood oil. The author has studied samples of oil, presumably from **Dacrydium**** ****Elatum**, and this oil smelled more typically like rectified cedarwood oil. The oil was crude and of a color similar to that of crude Texas or East African cedarwood oils (reddish-brown). **Siam Wood Oil **could find use as a fixative in woody perfume types, pine fragrances, Oriental bases, etc., but the perfumer is already blessed with a wealth of natural oils in this odor group. If Siam wood oil should disappear entirely from the perfumery market as a result of the postwar development in the area of origin, this may not present any great loss or deprivation to the creative perfumer.