White Lotus Aromatics Newsletter - Carrot Seed, July 15, 2001
NewsNeNwsNNewsletter Archive ewsl
Carrot Seed
Carrot Seed(Wild) Oil/Daucus carota-France
Before she has her floor swept
Or her dishes done,
Any day you'll find her
A-sunning in the sun!
It's long after midnight
Her key's in the lock,
And you never see her chimney smoke
Till past ten o'clock!
She digs in her garden
With a shovel and a spoon,
She weeds her lazy lettuce
By the light of the moon,
She walks up the walk
Like a woman in a dream,
She forgets she borrowed butter
And pays you back cream!
Her lawn looks like a meadow,
And if she mows the place
She leaves the clover standing
And the Queen Anne's lace!
Edna St. VincentMillay: Portrait by a Neighbour
Origin of Queen Anne's Lace(a common name for Wild Carrot/Daucus
carota)
The original wild-type carrots were thin, wiry, and varied in color from white
to purple, but not the common orange that we see today. Wild-type carrots are
also known as Queen Anne's Lace. The origin of the name is based upon an English
legend. Supposedly, when the future Queen Anne arrived from Denmark to became
the queen of King James I of England, wild carrot was still a novelty in the
royal gardens. The legend states that Queen Anne challenged the ladies of the
court to a contest to see who could produce a pattern of lace as lovely as the
flower of the carrot. The ladies knew that no one could rival the queen's handiwork
so it became a triumph for Anne (Haughton, 1978). Other common names for wild
carrot are bird's-nest and devil's-plague. http://www.siu.edu/~ebl/leaflets/carrot.htm
Origin of the name Carrot
carrot, carotene, from Greek karoton, carrot (from its hornlike shape).
The source word is ker and Indo-Eurpean word.
ENTRY: ker-1
DEFINITION: Horn, head; with derivatives referring to horned animals,
horn-shaped objects, and projecting parts. Oldest form *er-, beco ming *ker-
in centum languages. Derivatives include horn, unicorn, hornet, reindeer, migraine,
cheer, rhinoceros, and cerebrum.
Plant Description---
Its root is small and spindle shaped, whitish, slender and hard,
witha strong aromatic smell and an acrid, disagreeable taste, very different
to the reddish, thick, fleshy, cultivated form, with its pleasant odour and
peculiar, sweet, mucilaginous flavour. It penetrates some distance into the
ground, having only a few lateral rootlets.
The stems are erect and branched, generally about 2 feet high, tough
and furrowed. Both stems and leaves are more or less clothed with stout coarse
hairs.
The leaves are very finely divided, the lowest leaves considerably larger
than the upper; their arrangement on the stem is alternate, and all the leaves
embrace the stem with the sheathing base, which is so characteristic of this
group of plants, the Umbelliferae, to which the Carrot belongs.
The blossoms are densely clustered together in terminal umbels, or flattened
heads, inwhich the flower-bearing stalks of the head all arise from one point
in rays, like the ribs of an umbrella, each ray again dividing in the case of
the Carrot, in like manner to form a secondary umbel, or umbellule of white
flowers, the outer ones of which are irregular and larger than the others.
The Wild Carrot is in bloom from June to August, but often continues flowering
much longer.
The flowers themselves are very small, but from their whiteness and number,
they form a conspicuous head nearly flat while in bloom, or slightly convex,
but as the seeds ripen, the umbels contract, the outer rays, which are to begin
with 1 to 2 inches long, lengthening and curving inwards, so that the head forms
a hollow cup hence one of the old popular names for the plant - Birds' Nest.
The fruit is slightly flattened, with numerous bristles arranged in five
rows. The ring of finely-divided and leaf-like bracts at the point where the
umbel springs is a noticeable feature.
The Carrot is well distinguished from other plants of the same order by having
the central flower of the umbel, or sometimes a tiny umbellule, of a bright
red or deep purple colour, though there is a variety, Daucus maritimus, frequent
in many parts of the seacoast in the south of England, which differs in having
somewhat fleshy leaves and no central purple flower. In this case, all the flowers
of the head have usually a somewhat pinkish tinge. There was a curious superstition
that this small purple flower of the Carrot was of benefit for mitigating epilepsy.
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/carwil25.html
Images
http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band3/tafel_070.html
splendid botanical image of wild carrot plant
http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/2000/Ethnobotany/queen_anne_s_lace.html
good photos
---Medicinal Action and Uses---
Diuretic, stimulant deobstruent. An infusion of the whole herb is considered
an active and valuable remedy in the treatment of dropsy, chronic kidney diseases
and affections of the bladder. The infusion, made from 1 OZ. of the herb in
a pint of boiling water, is taken in wineglassful doses. Carrot tea, taken night
and morning, and brewed in this mannerfrom the whole front, is considered excellent
for a gouty disposition. A strong decoction is very useful in gravel and stone,
and isgood against flatulence. A fluid extract is also prepared, the dose being
from 1/2 to 1 drachm. The seeds are carminative, stimulant and very useful in
flatulence, windy colic, hiccough, dysentery, chronic coughs, etc. The dose
of the seeds, bruised, is from one-third to one teaspoonful, repeated as necessary.
They were at one time considered a valuable remedy for calculus complaints.
They are excellent in obstructions of the viscera, in jaundice (for which they
were formerly considered a specific), and in the beginnings of dropsies, and
are also of service as an emmenagogue. They have a slight aromaticsmell and
a warm, pungent taste. They communicate an agreeable flavour to malt liquor,
if infused in it while working in the vat, and render it a useful drink in scorbutic
disorders. Old writers tell us that a poultice made of the roots has been found
to mitigate the pain of cancerous ulcers, and that the leaves, appliedwith honey,
cleanse running sores and ulcers. An infusion of the root was also used as an
aperient.
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/carwil25.html
http://ars-genome.cornell.edu:80/cgi-bin/WebAce/webace?seme=2&db=ethnobotdb&class=Taxon&object=Daucus%20carota
country by country details of ethnobotanical uses
Edible Uses
Root - cooked[55]. Thin and stringy[K]. The flower clusters can be french-fried
to produce a carrot-flavoured gourmet's delight[183]. The aromatic seed is used
as a flavouring in stews etc[55, 183]. The dried roasted roots are ground into
a powder and are used for making coffee[183].
Essential Oil of Carrot Seed
Physical Description: yellow or amber-colored to pale orange-brown
mobile liquid
Olfactory description: slightly pungent, dry, earthy topnote. Woody-rooty
odor provides a nice base upon which the top note sits, The woody note has something
in common with some of the rich precious notes found in sandalwood. The earthy
note has something in common with the odor one detects when smelling rain falling
on dry soil. It(the earthy note) is slightly sharp.The combination of the woody-earthy
note is very tenacious. Deep into the dryout one can also detect a peppery note
which causes the olfactory receptors to pleasantly tingle .
Perfume Uses:blends well with citrus oils, costus, cassie and mimosa,
fougeres, chypres, geranium, cedarwood
Phytochemicals in Carrot Seed,Wild/Daucus carota(French distilled)
a-pinene 9.51%
Odor Description : Fresh Sweet Pine Earthy Woody
camphene 0.50
Odor Description : Fresh Herbal Woody Camphor Mint
sabinene 9.18
Odor Description : Woody Terpene Citrus Pine With Spice Nuance
b-pinene 1.64
Odor Description : Sweet Fresh Pine Woody Hay Green
myrcene 2.06
Odor Description : Fresh Peppery Terpy Spicy Balsam Plastic
limonene 1.08
Odor Description : Lemon Citrus Citral Fresh Sweet
linalol 0.46
Odor Description : Fresh Floral Sweet Woody Green Natural
geraniol 4.00
Odor Description : Sweet Rose Wax
geranyl acetate 4.26
Odor Description : Sweet Fruit Rose Lavender Fresh Green Fatty Terpene
daucene 2.90
a-cedrene 1.85
Odor Description : Woody Amber Tobacco Sandalwood Fresh Linalyl Acetate Patchouli
cis-b-farnesene 1.01
beta-caryophyllene 8.48
Odor Description : Sweet Woody Spice Clove Dry
trans-b-farnesene 3.29
b-bisabolene 3.99
balsamic
caratol 21.30
daucol 0.28
a-bisabolene 3.50
Odor Description : Mild Floral Peppery Note Other
Phytochemicals found in the seed not listed in the analysis-
2-OCTANONE, ALPHA-CURCUMENE, ALPHA-GURJUNENE, ALPHA-LINOLENIC-ACID, ASARALDEHYDE,
ASARONE , AZULENE , BERGAMOTENE, BETA-IONONE , BETA-SELINENE, CAMPHOR, CARVONE,
CITRAL, CITRONELLYL-ACETATE, CUMINALDEHYDE, DAUCARIN, DAUCENE , DELTA-3-CARENE,
ELEMICIN, EUGENOL, GERANIOL, GERANYL-ACETONE , GERANYL-FORMATE, GERANYL-ISOBUTYRATE,
KAEMPFEROL , P-CYMEN-8-OL, TRANS-BETA-BERGAPTENE
The biological activity of all these phytochemicals can be found on James Duke's
Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Database
http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/chem-activities.html
Price for Carrot Seed Essential oil/French grown and distilled sample-$2 1 ounce-$9 4 ounces-$33 8 ounces-$61 16 ounces-$110 32 ounces-$190 :
A very important note
Dear Friends-A number of people have asked me if
I can provide the actual EcoCert certificate with each of the oils that bears
that designation. So here is the way EcoCert works. The farmer and distiller
who gain EcoCert certification have a special license that is associated with
that crop and that oil. The distiller is able to use the EcoCert logo and license
number on those oils which are distilled from organically grown crops. Naturally
the address of the distiller is on the label with the logo and license number.
A separate certificate is not issued with each oil that is independent of the
the distiller who offers it. So what it means is that for now you will have
to trust me that I am, in fact, selling the EcoCert oils. It may be possible
for me to get a special license from EcoCert to sell the organic oils under
my own label. This will inevitably cause the price of the oils to rise even
more as I will have to pay for the license and some sort of auditing from EcoCert.
I will proceed with that process once I see if there is a great enough interest
in the EcoCert Oils. I am super enthusiastic about the quality of the oils and
all the steps that go into raising the crops organically. I will be added another
25 organic oils within the next 2 months. Hope that all makes sense.
Friendly
regards, Christopher