PRESENT PRODUCTION OF VOLATILE OILS FROM WILD PLANTS NATIVE TO THE UNITED STATES.
Reading edition
Only a very few of the wild plants native to this country have been distilled and their volatile oils used for commercial purposes. Among these may be mentioned longleaf pine, sassafras, wintergreen, sweet birch, pennyroyal, horsemint, and Canada fleabane.
The first and by far the most important oil distilled from a wild plant indigenous to the United States was turpentine oil, which was distilled as early as the middle of the eighteenth century. The production of this oil is rapidly declining, owing principally to the employment of very wasteful methods, which have resulted in the destruction of many of the large pine forests. Turpentine is still obtained, however, from the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), which occurs quite abundantly in the South Atlantic States from Virginia to Florida. The price of this valuable oil has risen so rapidly in recent years, owing to the shortage of raw material from which it is distilled, that a suitable substitute would be most desirable. This problem is now receiving the attention of scientific research workers, but no satisfactory substitute which can supply the trade has yet been found.
The commercial distillation of sassafras, wintergreen, and sweet birch possibly rank next in importance, although the oils are produced on a considerably smaller scale. These oils are used extensively by perfumers, confectioners, and manufacturers of toilet soaps. The plants are gathered in their native habitats and the quality of the oil depends upon the freedom from extraneous material, which can be insured only by extreme care in collection.
The production of pennyroyal and Canada fleabane oils from the wild plants is also carried on in a small way. The oils from these plants possess valuable therapeutic action and are used principally in medicinal preparations.
Horsemint and wild bergamot are wild aromatic plants which have been more recently distilled for their volatile oils. The use of these plants was brought about by the discovery that their oils contain, respectively, the valuable antiseptics thymol and carvacrol. The production of the oils, however, is not being carried on to any great extent.
These few species are practically the only wild aromatic plants of the United States which are at present being utilized for their volatile oils, and no attempt has yet been made to cultivate them in order to improve the quality or to increase the yield of the oils.