JUNIPER leaves - juniper virginiana
Table below: representative volatile leaf oil composition for junipers (J. virginia var virginiana (USA), eluted from a DB-5 gas chromatography column. Data expressed in % of total oil, the oil derived from steam distillation of the FOLIAGE. (so no digging-up of the roots is required).
This gave us a list of approximately 140 distinct molecules which came off the column, I left most of them off.
The significant numbers are marked in red
RT(s) Compound % B.P. (deg C) from Merck, 12th edn.
319 alpha-pinene 1.4 bp20:52.5 bp760:155-156
379 sabinene 6.7 No Listing
408 myrcene 0.9 beta from: bp10:44
481 limonene 18.9 bp763:175-176
608 terpinolene 0.5 No Listing
632 linalool 4.4 (dl) 194-197
734 camphor 3.7 mp:179 bp204
789 borneol 0.8 mp:(d)208 (l):204 bp:(d) 212:(l) 210
820 4-terpineol 1.5 bp:206-219 (d, l, and dl)
1101 safrole 10.9 mp:~11 bp:232-234
1229 cis-isosafrole 6.7 mp:~8.2 bp760:253 bp100:179.5
1403 methyleugenol 2.9 No Listing
1700 delta-cadinene 0.8 bp9:124
RT = retention time on the DB-5 column.
I gather this tree is known as the Red Cedar, though I think there are probably several trees which come under this moniker so there is room for confusion. It is also supposed to be the source of Red Cedarwood Oil, though the safrole content of this is unknown. Cedarwood oil is used for immersion
lenses in high-magnification microscope work.
Note: the incompetants at AUROMA Australia will supply you with the leaf oil of the communis species when you ask for the virginiana type. Ellisons of Nowra sell the seeds to this plant, which have reliably germinated.
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