Rosewood oil is a valuable

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...

, especially in

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

ry. It contains the substance

linalool Linalool () refers to two enantiomers of a naturally occurring terpene alcohol found in many flowers and spice plants. Linalool has multiple commercial applications, the majority of which are based on its pleasant scent (floral, with a touch of ...

, which has a number of uses. The oil is extracted from the wood of '' Aniba rosaeodora'' and '' Aniba parviflora'' and possibly other '' Aniba'' species. When it arrives at the distillery, the wood is chipped, and then steam distilled. Each tree yields about 1% oil by weight of wood. After a history of massive overharvesting and species depletion, efforts are underway to cultivate ''A. rosaeodora'', and to develop techniques for extracting the essential oil from leaves. Because many unrelated woods are called "

rosewood Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. True rosewoods All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated ...

", some confusion has arisen about the origin of "rosewood oil". Members of the genus ''

Dalbergia ''Dalbergia'' is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Dalbergia'' clade (or tribe): the Dalbergieae. T ...

'' such as Brazilian rosewood (''D. nigra'') and Indian rosewood (''D. latifolia'') have never been a source of rosewood oil.

References

{{Reflist Essential oils