Essential Oils · Cedrus Oils
Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) wood oil: yield, compounds
Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) G.Manetti ex Carrière
- Family
- Pinaceae
Species
| Binomial | Cedrus atlantica |
|---|---|
| Accepted name | Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) G.Manetti ex Carrière |
| WCVP status | accepted |
| Family | Pinaceae |
| IPNI identifier | urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:50881822-1 |
Source: Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, accessed on 21/09/2026.
Key facts
- Annemer et al. (2023) hydrodistilled C. atlantica sawdust from a sawmill in Azrou, Morocco, in a Clevenger-type apparatus.
- They report a yield of 3.20 % for this oil, without stating the basis of the percentage.
- Their Table 2 gives β-himachalene at “11.46 ± 2.3” and (E)-α-atlantone at “10.87 ± 2.3”, in “% relative peak area”.
- In 48 commercial wood oil samples, Setzer and Satyal (2026) give β-himachalene at “40.3 ± 4.9%” among the major components.
In the sense used by Setzer and Satyal (2026), the wood essential oil of Cedrus atlantica is obtained by steam distillation or hydrodistillation. In the Moroccan study of Annemer et al. (2023), the oil hydrodistilled from sawdust gave a yield of 3.20 % (basis of the percentage not stated). Its composition is given by that study and by an analysis of 48 commercial samples; the two are reported separately.
What is the essential oil of Cedrus atlantica wood?
According to Setzer and Satyal (2026), solvent extracts, including supercritical CO2 extracts, are not essential oils. Cedarwood essential oils, in this sense, are obtained by steam distillation or hydrodistillation. The same authors used 48 commercial essential oil samples from the collection of the Aromatic Plant Research Center (APRC) to evaluate the major components of the oil of Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) G.Manetti ex Carrière.
What does Cedrus atlantica wood oil contain?
Which compounds were measured in an oil hydrodistilled from sawdust?
Table 2 of Annemer et al. (2023) gives, in a column headed “C. atlantica (100%)”, values in “% relative peak area” for the oil hydrodistilled from the Azrou sawdust. A note to the table states that the data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation of triplicates. The table below keeps the row numbers and the compound names as the source writes them.
| Row | Compound, as written | % relative peak area |
|---|---|---|
| 37 | “β-himachalene” | “11.46 ± 2.3” |
| 64 | “(E)-α-atlantone” | “10.87 ± 2.3” |
| 59 | “deodarnone” (spelling of the source) | “10.74 ± 3.3” |
| 54 | “Himachalol” | “10.52 ± 2.5” |
| 31 | “α-himachalene” | “7.55 ± 1.1” |
| 60 | “E(E)-γ-atlantone” (name as written by the source) | “6.96 ± 2.1” |
| 61 | “(Z)-α-atlantone” | “5.56 ± 2.5” |
| 34 | “γ-himachalene” | “3.66 ± 1.5” |
| 49 | “β-himachalene oxyde” (spelling of the source) | “2.77 ± 0.7” |
| 50 | “cedranone” | “2.7 ± 1.2” |
| 52 | “3-iso-thujopsanone” | “2.65 ± 2.1” |
| 51 | “1-epi-cubenol” | “2.52 ± 2.6” |
| 63 | “benzyl benzoate” | “2.44 ± 0.2” |
Which major components were measured in commercial oils?
Setzer and Satyal (2026) give the following major components for the 48 commercial C. atlantica wood essential oil samples. The source states neither the basis of the percentage nor what “±” represents.
| Compound | Value, as written |
|---|---|
| β-himachalene | “40.3 ± 4.9%” |
| α-himachalene | “15.3 ± 1.8%” |
| γ-himachalene | “9.9 ± 0.9%” |
| (E)-α-atlantone | “5.4 ± 3.4%” |
| (E)-γ-atlantone | “1.9 ± 2.0%” |
This page gives the figures of each study separately: they are not averaged, and neither is read as confirming the other.
How were the sawdust and commercial oils analysed?
In Annemer et al. (2023), the samples were analysed by gas chromatography on a capillary column equipped with HP-5 (30 m × 0.25 mm, film thickness 0.25 μm). The chromatograph had an FID detector, an injector set at 275 °C and nitrogen (1.8 mL/min) as carrier gas. GC/MS analysis was carried out for the identification of the components.
In Annemer et al. (2023), the GC/MS analysis was conducted on a Hewlett-Packard HP 6890 gas chromatograph with a mass spectrometer (5973) and an HP-5MS column (30 m × 0.25 mm, film thickness 0.25 μm). The identities of the components were confirmed using the NIST 98 spectral library. The retention indices on the HP-5 MS column were calculated with a homologous series of alkanes (C8–C28).
Setzer and Satyal (2026) analysed the commercial samples of the APRC collection by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry on a Shimadzu GC-MS-QP2010 Ultra. The instrument was equipped with a Zebron ZB-5ms capillary column (60 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μm). The analysis used helium as carrier gas (2.0 mL/min), injection and ion source temperatures of 260 °C, and an oven programme from 50 °C to 260 °C at 2.0 °C/min. It injected, in split mode (24.5:1), 0.1 μL of a 5 % (w/v) solution of the oil in dichloromethane.
How is the oil obtained, and with what yield?
Which material was distilled?
According to Annemer et al. (2023), the C. atlantica sawdust was collected at a cedarwood sawmill in Azrou (Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco), at “latitude 33°26′9.226″N, longitude 5°13′21.104″W”. All the plants of the study, the C. atlantica sawdust among them, were collected during the same period, in April.
How was the sawdust hydrodistilled?
In Annemer et al. (2023), the wood sawdust of C. atlantica was distilled by hydrodistillation, using a Clevenger-type apparatus. A total of 200 g of dried plant material was put in a distillation flask containing 1 L of distilled water, and C. atlantica alone was heated to boiling for 8 h. The essential oils were collected, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and stored at 4 °C in an opaque green flask. The experiments were performed in triplicate.
What yield was reported?
Annemer et al. (2023) report a yield of 3.20 % for the C. atlantica essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation, the highest yield of their study. The source does not state the basis of the percentage, nor, in its text, whether this figure is an average.
See also: Juniperus virginiana oil, Syzygium aromaticum bud oil, Mentha spicata oil, drops ↔ ml converter.
References
- Annemer S., Ez zoubi Y., Satrani B., Stambouli H., Assouguem A., Ullah R., Ali E.A., Ercisli S., Marc R.A., Bouayoun T., Farah A., « Simultaneous Hydrodistillation of Cedrus atlantica Manetti and Salvia rosmarinus Spenn: Optimization of Anti-Wood-Decay Fungal Activity Using Mixture Design Methodology », ACS Omega 2023;8(30):27030-27043, doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c01970 — https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC10398857/fullTextXML
- Setzer W.N., Satyal P., « Cedarwood Oils: The Wood Essential Oil Compositions from Trees Known as “Cedar” », Plants 2026;15(4):659, doi:10.3390/plants15040659 — https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC12944130/fullTextXML
- Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — https://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/wcvp.zip