Progress in Essential Oils

By: Brian M. Lawrence

Posted: July 18, 2008, from the August 2008 issue of P&F magazine.

Juniper Berry Oil

Kartnig et al. (1998) compared the range of composition between lab distilled oils and commercial oils of juniper berries. The results of this comparative study are shown in T-1. It is interesting to note that because of a single adulterated juniper berry oil, the oxygenated (flavor-full constituents) terpenoid range is from zero to the more normally encountered levels.

Ranade (2002) reported that juniper berry oil contained the following components:

alpha-pinene (33.7%)

camphene (0.5%)

p-menthane‡ (0.1%)

beta-pinene (1.1%)

sabinene (27.6%)

myrcene (5.5%)

alpha-phellandrene (1.3%)

alpha-terpinene (1.9%)

1,4-cineole (4.0%)

beta-phellandrene (3.3%)

p-cymene (3.6%)

gamma-terpinene† (3.0%)

terpinen-1-ol (4.6%)

bornyl acetate (0.4%)

alpha-terpineol (0.2%)

beta-caryophyllene (0.6%)

neryl acetate (0.3%)

tricyclene† (0.1%)

delta-cadinene (0.2%)

† incorrect identification based on GC elution order; ‡ compound does not exist naturally

Oils produced from fresh, ripe (black) berries of J. communis obtained from plants growing in their natural habitat in northeastern Lithuania were analyzed by Butkiene et al. (2005).

This is only an excerpt of the full article that appeared in P&F Magazine, but you can purchase the full-text version.