{"id":1713,"date":"2017-12-20T10:40:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T15:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/phytochemia.com\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2017-12-20T10:40:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T15:40:04","slug":"oil-profiles-balsam-fir","status":"publish","type":"articles-de-blogue","link":"https:\/\/phytochemia.com\/en\/articles-de-blogue\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil profiles: Balsam fir"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Sarah-Eve Tremblay, M. Sc. A., chimiste<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The fir is directly associated to the holidays frenzy. It is decorated with lights, garlands and, of course, a star\u00a0on top. Often a small village is built at its foot. Its scent gives the house a festive and comforting smell. That is why, in this holiday season, we will discuss\u00a0its essential oil, or more specifically that of the species found in Canada: balsam fir (<em>Abies<\/em> <em>balsamea<\/em>).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1734\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1734\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1734\" src=\"\/\/phytochemia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/A_balsamea-profile-750x493.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"493\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1734\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1.\u00a0<\/strong>Typical chromatogram of\u00a0<em>A. balsamea<\/em> needles oil on a DB-5 column.\u00a0<strong>A:\u00a0<\/strong>Camphene\u00a0<strong>B:\u00a0<\/strong>\u03b2-Pinene<strong>\u00a0C:\u00a0<\/strong>\u03943-Carene<strong>\u00a0D:\u00a0<\/strong>\u03b1-Terpineol<strong>\u00a0E:\u00a0<\/strong>Piperitone<strong>\u00a0F:\u00a0<\/strong>Bornyl acetate<strong>\u00a0G:\u00a0<\/strong>Thymol<strong>\u00a0H:\u00a0<\/strong>Longifolene<strong>\u00a0I:\u00a0<\/strong>\u03b2-Bisabolene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The fir is part of the\u00a0large\u00a0group of conifers. It is particularly\u00a0gathered for the\u00a0production of lumber and paper, but also for production of essential oils, mainly from needles. The essential oil of balsam fir (figure 1) is rich in monoterpenes, more than 95%. The dominant monoterpenes (figure 2) are \u03b2-pinene (<strong>B<\/strong>), typically around 25-35%, and \u03943-carene (<strong>C<\/strong>)\u00a0at 8-20% (with exceptions, see below). Some oxygenated compounds\u00a0of this oil are bornyl acetate (<strong>F<\/strong>) typically between 5% and 9%, \u03b1-terpineol (<strong>D<\/strong>) between 0,1% and 1%, piperitone (<strong>E<\/strong>) between \u223d0,1% and 1,2% and thymol (<strong>G<\/strong>) between\u00a0traces and 0,3%. [1, internal data]. The piperitone is not a compound that is common to all conifers: for example, it is almost completely lacking in\u00a0black spruce (<em>Picea mariana<\/em>). Bornyl acetate, on the other hand, is responsible for the\u00a0refreshing smell of many conifers. The characteristic sesquiterpenes of balsam fir, besides caryophyllene, are longifolene (<strong>H<\/strong>) and \u03b2-bisabolene (<strong>I<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1740\" src=\"\/\/phytochemia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Compounds_sapin-2-750x440.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"440\" \/><strong>Figure 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Typical terpenes from\u00a0<em>A. balsamea\u00a0<\/em>oil. See figure 1 for names.<\/p>\n<p>Essential oil of fir can be divided into two different groups (chemotypes). The first chemotype is rich in \u03943-carene (<strong>C<\/strong>) and second chemotype only contains a small percentage.\u00a0Another division has also been noticed for thymol, with a few samples featuring as much as 3%, but most of the fir oils studied contained only a small percentage of this oxygenated compound. However, those containing a high percentage of thymol were observed in balsam fir oils containing both\u00a0large or small percentage of \u03943-carene [1].<\/p>\n<p>One can also notice\u00a0that oils\u00a0obtained from young shoots of needles, occurring in spring near the bud burst period,\u00a0feature an increase in the percentage of bornyl acetate from \u223d6% to \u223d13%, of piperitone from \u223d0,1% to \u223d1% and of camphene (<strong>A<\/strong>) from \u223d4% to \u223d10%, and a often decrease in the percentage of \u03b2-pinene from up to\u00a040% to \u223d12%. This modification of percentage is due to the fact that biosynthesis of\u00a0some terpenes is at rest during other seasons [2].<\/p>\n<p>[1] R\u00e9gimbal, J-M., Collin, G. (1994) Essential Oil Analysis of Balsam Fir\u00a0<em>Abies balsamea\u00a0<\/em>(L.) Mill, J. Essent. Oil Res.,\u00a0<strong>6<\/strong>, 229-238<strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[2] von Rudloff, E., Granat, M. (1982) Seasonal Variation of the Terpenes of the Leaves, Buds, and Twigs of Balsam Fir (<em>Abies balsamea<\/em>), Can. J. Bot.\u00a0<strong>60:\u00a0<\/strong>2682-2685.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories-darticle":[31],"class_list":["post-1713","articles-de-blogue","type-articles-de-blogue","status-publish","hentry","categories-darticle-popularization"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Oil profiles: Balsam fir - PhytoChemia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phytochemia.com\/en\/articles-de-blogue\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oil profiles: Balsam fir - PhytoChemia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sarah-Eve Tremblay, M. Sc. A., chimiste The fir is directly associated to the holidays frenzy. 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That is why, in this holiday season, we will [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/phytochemia.com\/en\/articles-de-blogue\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PhytoChemia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/phytochemia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-20T15:40:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/phytochemia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/phytochemia.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alexis St-Gelais\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PhytoChemia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PhytoChemia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alexis St-Gelais\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phytochemia.com\\\/en\\\/articles-de-blogue\\\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phytochemia.com\\\/en\\\/articles-de-blogue\\\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alexis St-Gelais\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phytochemia.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a98b87fdc34fc637f6c0d24647c6c362\"},\"headline\":\"Oil profiles: Balsam fir\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-20T15:40:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phytochemia.com\\\/en\\\/articles-de-blogue\\\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":473,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phytochemia.com\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Abies balsamea\",\"Balsam fir\",\"Christmas\",\"Compounds\",\"Essential oils\",\"Oil profiles\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Popularization\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phytochemia.com\\\/en\\\/articles-de-blogue\\\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phytochemia.com\\\/en\\\/articles-de-blogue\\\/oil-profiles-balsam-fir\\\/\",\"name\":\"Oil profiles: Balsam fir - 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