Juniper

Juniper is the gin smell, sharp and green with a resinous pine edge. Berry oil is up to half alpha-pinene, and the group also covers needle oil and cade, which is juniper tar. Cade is a different animal entirely, smoky and medicinal rather than fresh. In lab tests on berry oil, only one of three samples held back bacteria and Candida strongly, which shows how much batches differ.^[1] Alpha-pinene on its own is antibacterial, but no single compound beat the whole oil.^[1]^[2]

Juniper Berry

Juniperus communis

Also Known As: Common Juniper
Family: Woody
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Medium
Extraction: Steam Distillation
Plant Parts: Ripe berries
Origins: Bulgaria, Hungary, France
Effect: Grounding & Centering, Respiratory Support
Aroma: Fresh, Woody, Pine-like
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Skincare, Massage & Body
Price: $$$$The berries take 2-3 years to ripen on the bush; yield is moderate

These are the berries that flavour gin, though botanically they are cones rather than fruit. Alpha-pinene can be half the oil, with myrcene and sabinene filling out the resinous, green sharpness. In lab tests against bacteria and Candida taken from hospital patients, one of three oil samples worked well and the other two did not.^[1] No single compound in it beat the whole oil, so whatever does the work is the combination.^[1] Alpha-pinene by itself is antibacterial, which explains part but not all of it.^[2]

Cade

Juniperus oxycedrus

Also Known As: Juniper Tar, Prickly Juniper
Family: Woody
Perfumery Note: Base
Intensity: Very Strong
Extraction: Destructive Distillation
Plant Parts: Wood
Origins: Spain, Morocco, France
Effect: Grounding & Centering, Respiratory Support
Aroma: Smoky, Woody, Tar-like
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Skincare, Haircare, Perfumery & Fragrance Making
Price: $$$$Produced by destructive distillation (scorching) of the wood; an inexpensive industrial process

Cade is a tar, made by burning juniper wood slowly and catching what runs off. It smells of smoke, leather and creosote, and it is one of the few oils people recognise instantly without liking. Phenols like guaiacol and cresol give it that smell and its long use on scaly, itchy skin. Work on the oil found it fought bacteria and helped wounds close.^[3] Those same phenols are why a cosmetic safety review flagged it as risky at high doses.^[4]

Juniper Needle

Juniperus communis

Also Known As: Juniper Leaf, Juniper Twig
Family: Woody
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Medium
Extraction: Steam Distillation
Plant Parts: Needles, Branches
Origins: France, Italy, Switzerland
Effect: Respiratory Support, Grounding & Centering, Focus & Mental Clarity
Aroma: Fresh, Coniferous, Green
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Massage & Body, Household & Cleaning
Price: $$$$Harvested from the same widespread shrub as juniper berries, but needle-specific distillation runs are less common commercially, keeping it a modest step up from berry oil

Needle oil comes from the foliage and young twigs rather than the berries. It is sharper and greener, closer to a cut conifer than to gin. Limonene leads instead of the berry's myrcene, which is what lifts it and makes it smell fresher. A survey of 109 samples from Corsica found two clearly different forms of the oil, one built on limonene and one on sabinene.^[5] Which one you get depends on where the tree grew.^[5]

Essential Nose

Juniper

Juniper Berry

Cade

Juniper Needle

References