An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the oil of the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An essential oil is essential in the sense that it contains the essence of the plant's fragrance—the characteristic fragrance of the plant from which it is derived. The term "essential" used here does not mean indispensable or usable by the human body, as with the terms essential amino acid or essential fatty acid, which are so called because they are nutritionally required by a living organism.
Safrole is an organic compound with the formula CH2O2C6H3CH2CH=CH2. It is a colorless oily liquid, although impure samples can appear yellow. A member of the phenylpropanoid family of natural products, it is found in sassafras plants, among others. Small amounts are found in a wide variety of plants, where it functions as a natural antifeedant. Ocotea pretiosa, which grows in Brazil, and Sassafras albidum, which grows in eastern North America, are the main natural sources of safrole. It has a characteristic "sweet-shop" aroma.
Myristicin is a naturally occurring compound found in common herbs and spices, such as nutmeg. It is an insecticide, and has been shown to enhance the effectiveness of other insecticides.
Cinnamomum cassia, called Chinese cassia or Chinese cinnamon, is an evergreen tree originating in southern China and widely cultivated there and elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia. It is one of several species of Cinnamomum used primarily for its aromatic bark, which is used as a spice. The buds are also used as a spice, especially in India, and were used by the ancient Romans.
Cinnamaldehyde is an organic compound with the formula or C₆H₅CH=CHCHO. Occurring naturally as predominantly the trans (E) isomer, it gives cinnamon its flavor and odor. It is a phenylpropanoid that is naturally synthesized by the shikimate pathway. This pale yellow, viscous liquid occurs in the bark of cinnamon trees and other species of the genus Cinnamomum. The essential oil of cinnamon bark is about 90% cinnamaldehyde. Cinnamaldehyde decomposes to styrene because of oxidation as a result of bad storage or transport conditions. Styrene especially forms in high humidity and high temperatures. This is the reason why cinnamon contains small amounts of styrene.
Linoleic acid (LA) is an organic compound with the formula HOOC(CH2)7CH=CHCH2CH=CH(CH2)4CH3. Both alkene groups are cis. It is a fatty acid sometimes denoted 18:2 (n-6) or 18:2 cis-9,12. A linoleate is a salt or ester of this acid.
Coumarin or 2H-chromen-2-one is an aromatic organic chemical compound with formula C9H6O2. Its molecule can be described as a benzene molecule with two adjacent hydrogen atoms replaced by an unsaturated lactone ring −(CH)=(CH)−(C=O)−O−, forming a second six-membered heterocycle that shares two carbons with the benzene ring. It belongs to the benzopyrone chemical class and considered as a lactone.
Anethole is an organic compound that is widely used as a flavoring substance. It is a derivative of the aromatic compound allylbenzene and occurs widely in the essential oils of plants. It is in the class of phenylpropanoid organic compounds. It contributes a large component of the odor and flavor of anise and fennel, anise myrtle (Myrtaceae), liquorice (Fabaceae), magnolia blossoms, and star anise (Schisandraceae). Closely related to anethole is its isomer estragole, which is abundant in tarragon (Asteraceae) and basil (Lamiaceae), and has a flavor reminiscent of anise. It is a colorless, fragrant, mildly volatile liquid. Anethole is only slightly soluble in water but exhibits high solubility in ethanol. This trait causes certain anise-flavored liqueurs to become opaque when diluted with water; this is called the ouzo effect.
Carvone is a member of a family of chemicals called terpenoids. Carvone is found naturally in many essential oils, but is most abundant in the oils from seeds of caraway, spearmint, and dill.
Camphora officinarum is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is known by various names, most notably the camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel.
Pinene is a collection of unsaturated bicyclic monoterpenes. Two geometric isomers of pinene are found in nature, α-pinene and β-pinene. Both are chiral. As the name suggests, pinenes are found in pines. Specifically, pinene is the major component of the liquid extracts of conifers. Pinenes are also found in many non-coniferous plants such as camphorweed (Heterotheca) and big sagebrush.
Eucalyptol is a monoterpenoid colorless liquid, and a bicyclic ether. It has a fresh camphor-like odor and a spicy, cooling taste. It is insoluble in water, but miscible with organic solvents. Eucalyptol makes up about 70–90% of eucalyptus oil. Eucalyptol forms crystalline adducts with hydrohalic acids, o-cresol, resorcinol, and phosphoric acid. Formation of these adducts is useful for purification.
Caryophyllene, more formally (−)-β-caryophyllene (BCP), is a natural bicyclic sesquiterpene that is a constituent of many essential oils, especially clove oil, the oil from the stems and flowers of Syzygium aromaticum (cloves), the essential oil of Cannabis sativa, copaiba, rosemary, and hops. It is usually found as a mixture with isocaryophyllene and α-humulene, a ring-opened isomer. Caryophyllene is notable for having a cyclobutane ring, as well as a trans-double bond in a 9-membered ring, both rarities in nature.
Humulene, also known as α-humulene or α-caryophyllene, is a naturally occurring monocyclic sesquiterpene (C15H24), containing an 11-membered ring and consisting of 3 isoprene units containing three nonconjugated C=C double bonds, two of them being triply substituted and one being doubly substituted. It was first found in the essential oils of Humulus lupulus (hops), from which it derives its name. Humulene is an isomer of β-caryophyllene, and the two are often found together as a mixture in many aromatic plants.
α-Pinene is an organic compound of the terpene class. It is one of the two isomers of pinene, the other being β-pinene. An alkene, it contains a reactive four-membered ring. It is found in the oils of many species of coniferous trees, notably the Pinus and Picea species. It is also found in the essential oil of rosemary and Satureja myrtifolia. Both enantiomers are known in nature; (1S,5S)- or (−)-α-pinene is more common in European pines, whereas the (1R,5R)- or (+)-α-isomer is more common in North America. The enantiomers' racemic mixture is present in some oils such as eucalyptus oil and orange peel oil.
β-Pinene is a monoterpene, an organic compound found in plants. It is one of the two isomers of pinene, the other being α-pinene. It is a colorless liquid soluble in alcohol, but not water. It has a woody-green pine-like smell.
2,5-Dimethoxy-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine is a lesser-known psychedelic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine chemical classes. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin and was described in his book PiHKAL. Shulgin listed the dosage as 30–75 mg and the duration as 6–8 hours. He reported DMMDA as producing LSD-like images, mydriasis, ataxia, and time dilation. DMMDA isn't mentioned much in literature outside PiHKAL unlike 2C-B.
Carpanone is a naturally occurring lignan-type natural product most widely known for the remarkably complex way nature prepares it, and the similarly remarkable success that an early chemistry group, that of Orville L. Chapman, had at mimicking nature's pathway. Carpanone is an organic compound first isolated from the carpano trees of Bougainville Island by Brophy and coworkers, trees from which the natural product derives its name. The hexacyclic lignan is one of a class of related diastereomers isolated from carpano bark as mixtures of equal proportion of the "handedness" of its components, and is notable in its stereochemical complexity, because it contains five contiguous stereogenic centers. The route by which this complex structure is achieved through biosynthesis involves a series of reactions that, almost instantly, take a molecule with little three-dimensionality to the complex final structure. Notably, Brophy and coworkers isolated the simpler carpacin, a phenylpropanoid with a 9-carbon framework, recognized its substructure as being dimerized within the complex carpanone structure, and proposed a hypothesis of how carpacin was converted to carpanone in plant cells:
Sugandha kokila oil is an essential oil derived from the berries of the evergreen plant Cinnamomum glaucescens, part of the family Lauraceae, which is native to Nepal and grows wild in the districts of Dang, Rolpa, and Sallyan in the Rapti Zone.
Cinnamyl acetate is a chemical compound of the cinnamyl ester family, in which the variable R group is substituted by a methyl group. As a result of the non-aromatic carbon-carbon double bond, cinnamyl acetate can exist in a Z and an E configuration:
