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Amber Essential Oil
Although often considered a gem, amber is a wholly-organic material derived from the resin of extinct species of trees. In the dense forests of the Middle Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, between 10 and 100 million years ago, these resin-bearing trees fell and were carried by rivers to coastal regions. There, the trees and their resins became covered with sediment, and over millions of years the resin hardened into amber. Although many amber deposits remain in ocean residue, geological events often repositioned the amber elsewhere. Amber is the hardest fossil resins, it is odourless, the essential oil is produced by dry destructive distillation from the resin rejected from the gem industry.
Amber essential oil is produced from the fossilized sap of the giant conifer Pinus succinifera found primarily washed up on the shores of the Baltic Sea, in Poland, Germany, and also along the North Sea coasts of Denmark, Holland, and England, a further quantity is obtained by mining. The crude oil is often used in perfumery. the resinous, warm and smoky odour with an undertone of floral citrus allows it to blend well with: geranium, pine, spruce, cedarwood, myrrh, galbanum, frankincense, cypress, clove, aniseed, lemon, orange, cistus, rose absolute, and benzoin, useful in 'leather type' bases e.g. mens colognes and after shaves. The Ancient Romans and Greeks used it to treat ailments such as asthma, rheumatism and internal problems. Its purported healing powers have extended to epilepsy, jaundice, kidney and bladder complaints and even the plague.
Rectified amber oil is produced by steam distillation of the crude oil, it is pale yellow in colour with a peculiar burnt-woody somewhat camphoraceous odour,
| Adulteration: | The oil is sometimes adulterated with oil of turpentine, and is not often seen in the pure state, the commercial article being frequently obtained by the destructive distillation of resins, such as copal and dammar. |
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Properties, Indications
and Uses: | Calmative, analgesic, antispasmodic, expectorant, febrifuge |
| Toxicity: | |
| Perfumery Uses: | Useful in 'leather type' bases e.g. mens colognes and after shaves |
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