Essential Oil Card
3 July 2018
By Benoit Roger, Ph. D. Always looking for a deeper knowledge of our surrounding plants, we recently distilled eastern teaberry or American wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) freshly harvested in our local boreal forest (Saguenay, QC, Canada). Leafs of wintergreen and beginning of the distillation The crushed leaves of eastern teaberry has an odor that is
Essential Oil Card
7 December 2017
Benoit Roger, Ph. D., Alexis St-Gelais, Chemist Some aromatic plants are particularly associated with Christmas time. This week, we would like to talk about one of them which is used in mulled wine, in candied form and which even has given its name to a spiced bread we specially cook for Christmas: ginger (Zingiber officinale).
Plant card
29 August 2017
Benoit Roger, Ph. D. If you have the chance to visit Morocco or Tunisia during spring, get away from urban centers and follow your nose, it will probably lead you near one of the many plantations of bigarade orange or bitter orange spread in all Maghreb. From march to april, these little trees dress up
Plant card
20 June 2017
Alexis St-Gelais, M. Sc., chimiste Mandarin fruit (Citrus nobilis) essential oil is an aromatic delicacy. By experience, we observe that it regularly is either adulterated or confused with other citruses. Chemically, there are a few good keypoints to look for that will tell if a mandarin oil is genuine. We also provide an annotated typical
Essential Oil Card
30 May 2017
Bergamot oil is cold pressed from peels of Citrus aurantium ssp. bergamia fruits. Main compounds found in bergamot are limonene, linalool and linalyl acetate. Common adulteration of this oil is made by adding synthetic linalool and/or synthetic linalyl acetate. This can be easily detected with GC-MS analysis. Cold pressed bergamot oil is known to be
Plant card
18 April 2017
Alexis St-Gelais, M. Sc., chimiste Boswellia serrata grows in India, as opposed to most other commonly sold frankincense species which rather grow in the Horn of Africa and the southern Arabic peninsula. Frankincense serrata is not only segregated from a geographical point of view, but also differs from the other frankincenses chemically. This is reflected in