Pine, Dwarf (Mugo Pine)

Some time ago someone contacted me asking if we offered Mugo Pine, she was looking for it for a perfume blend, that it was irreplaceable. At the time I told her no, my sources didn’t offer it, and I had no plans to seek it out. And then this arrived, in a batch of samples from Italy. It had to be the first one I opened, to see why. Ah yes. Lovely. And not like any of our other conifers. The needles that supply this oil are trimmed from trees growing at 1200 meters in the Italian Alps. It carries the beauty of its surroundings with it. From our producer, “Although it is part of the class of low-ester coniferous oils, mugo pine oil is characteristic and differs in aroma from other pine needle oils, due to the low percentage of (a-pinene and b-pinene.).Our oil is obtained from needles and small leaf twigs from young trees, by steam distillation;It is a mobile liquid, very pale yellow, with a characteristic and pleasant smell of Pine, slightly sweet and with a delicate balsamic appearance, with a final slightly resinous note and wood, almost spicy, reminiscent of cypress and juniper berries.” Tony Burfield writes, “It has a light sweet, slightly aldehydic pine needle odour, with a delicate balsamic aspect. The dry-down is lighty resinous and woody.” To my nose, Mugo Pine is a bit deeper, aromatically than many of the other conifers, definitely deeper than Scotch Pine or our beloved Pinon Pine. And Tony Burfield noting a ‘slightly woody’ note in the drydown fits. I sat with this Dwarf Pine on a tissue, inhaling occasionally without remembering that sometimes Scotch Pine will give me insomnia. Not so this lovely oil, I found it helped me work, gave me some mental focus, but was also relaxing and destressing. (And I slept like a baby!) Shirley and Len Price state that Mugo Pine is an expectorant, helping loosen mucous in the lungs and bronchia, whether by inhalation alone or by topical use in a chest rub.Jeanne Rose writes that Mugo Pineis used in Europe for diseases of the skin and scalp and particularly at healing spas where it is inhaled for ailments of the respiratory organs, including pleurisy and tuberculosis. This is a powerful adjunct in the therapies for all sorts of ear, nose, throat and lung disorders. Jennifer Peace Rhind writes that “In perfumery, the oil from the dwarf pine is preferred as it has a sweet, balsamic woody odour, with a slightly spicy character.” She attributes the aroma to the higher phellandrene content. SHELF LIFE: Approximately 2 to 3 years after you open the bottle. Storing in the dark, refrigerated, and decanting half full bottles into smaller, full bottles will extend shelf life. GC/MS: Batch IT-58743 Pinus Mugo Turra, wildharvested, steam-distilled from needles, Italy (Sometimes called Dwarf Pine.) – Different from other pine oils in aroma – Mental focus but relaxing and destressing – Used as an expectorant – Inhaled for ailments of respiratory organs (inc. pleurisy and tuberculosis