essential oils

Cedarwood Texas is considered to be an anti-spasmodic, antiseptic, astringent, and expectorant. Cedarwood Virginia is considered to be an abortifacient, antiseborrheic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, astringent, expectorant, fungicidal, and an insecticide. We’ve already discussed the claims that cedarwood can be an abortifacient (not completely sure, but be careful!), sedative (confirmed), and insecticide (confirmed), but what about the other...

The two other main components of cedarwood Texas and cedarwood Virginia essential oils are cedrene (1.8% in Texas, 27.2% in Virginia) and thujopsene (60% Texas, 27% Virginia). And here’s the problem – I’ve done a ton of searching, and I can’t find anything with any great information about what these compounds bring to the science of...

What exactly is cedrol? It’s a sesquiterpenoid alcohol found in cedarwood oil (definition here). It makes up about 19% of cedarwood Texas and 15.8% of cedarwood Virginia. The International Organization for Standardization states cedrol should make up a minimum of 20% in Texas cedarwood and a maximum of 14% in Virginia cedarwood, whereas the Fragrance Manufacturer’s...

The cedarwood essential oils from Texas and Virginia can be very similar, but there are different claims and different processing for each of the oils.  From Leung’s Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients (click here for the excerpt): Cedarwood oil Virginia contains mainly α-and β-cedrene (ca. 80%), cedrol (3–14%), and cedrenol. Other sesquiterpenes present include thujopsene,...

Caryophyllene is a bicyclic sesquiterprene found in clove (3.56%), rosemary (up to 8.3%), oregano (4.9%), black pepper (7.29%), and possibly cedarwood atlas. (1) ß-carophyllene is the major sesquiterpene found in pepper essential oil (2). It may have some anaesthetic effect, as found in this study. “In this work we studied the local anaesthetic activity of β-caryophyllene, one of...