Lemon oil (steam distilled)

Other comments :

Lemon is particularly grown in Sicily where it is found since it was introduced by the Arabs during the tenth century.
The Sicily mountaneous area does not allow too big areas of cultivation, the fields are smaller than those of California (2nd world producer).
Citrus currently suffer from a disease called ''citrus greening ''. This disease is deadly for citrus fruits and no treatment exists. It is transmitted by a vector insect that attacks young shoots: the psylla. This results in the premature death of many trees and therefore the decline in the general production of the essential oil and its quality (reduction of the D-Limonene level).

Stability :

Solubility issues in perfumes
Citruses tend to fade through time in perfumes
Limonene tends to convert into Carvone through time, and to give a minthy note to the oil
Aldehydes can form diethylacetals in stability tests, without modifying the raw material’s smell

Uses in perfumery :

Used in eaux fraîches, colognes, citrus flavours. Brings freshness and head, sometimes with other citrus fruits. Matches well with Hedione®.

Chemotypes :

The genus Citrus includes the vast majority of citrus fruits and includes a large number of varieties available in perfumery:
Bergamot - (Citrus bergamia) is a hybrid of lemon and bitter orange, grown for the essential oil of its fruit and petitgrain.
Bitter orange or bigarade orange - (Citrus aurantium), grown in Spain and Florida.
Citron - (Citrus medica), grown in Italy (Sicily).
Lemon - (Citrus limon), cultured in Italy for the essential oil of its fruit and of its leafy twigs (Petitgrain).
Combava - (Citrus hystrix), grown in Thailand and India.
Lime - (Citrus aurantifolia), grown for its fruit in Mexico for the most part.
Mandarin - (Citrus reticulata), grown mainly in Italy for its fruit and for its petitgrain, by extracting the leaves from the tree. Its hybrid with sweet orange gave birth to clementine.
Orange - (Citrus sinensis) is famous for the cultivation of its fruits, whose juice and essential oil are extracted in Brazil and California in particular, which is the most used of all perfumes.
Grapefruit - (Citrus paradisii) of Malay origin, is cultivated for its essential oil in Brazil and Israel in particular.
Yuzu - (Citrus junos), produced in Japan and Korea.

Extraction process :

Lemon is the fruit of the lemon tree, a thorny tree that is 3 to 8 meters tall with evergreen leaves and white flowers.
The harvest usually takes place between the months of November and May, although it is possible to obtain fruit all year round. The fruits are harvested mechanically before they are washed and sent to a sfumatrice. The machine breaks the zest to collect the essential oil. This oil is driven to a centrifuge by a stream of water and centrifuged twice after the filtration of the residual zest. The zest is collected to be steam distilled during 4 hours. Thus, one oil is obtained by cold press, and another by steaming.
The extraction yield of lemon zest is between 0.3 and 0.5%.
It is also possible to perform a less common hydrodistillation, starting from the fresh peel. For this method, the fruit passes directly into a peeling machine to separate the zest from the pulp and extract the fruit peel only.
The essential oil can be deterpened or desesquiterpened, to increase the intensity (a deterpenation concentrates the essential oil aldehydes) or for regulatory reasons (furocoumarins withdrawal, photosensitizers ...).
The lemon tree is also at the origin of another essential oil, obtained from its leaves, called Petitgrain Lemon EO.

Geographic origin :

Data not available.