The botanical source of Chinese cedarwood oil:: Cupressus funebris or Cupressaceae species?

Cupressus funebris is generally regarded as the botanical source of Chinese cedarwood oil. However, due the limited amount of mature forest trees of C. funebris in China, other species in the Cupressaceae that have wood oils high in alpha-cedrene, beta-cedrene, thujopsene and cedrol might be utilized for cedar-wood oil production. Wood samples of putative C. funebris were extracted and the extracts were analyzed and compared with several lots of Chinese cedarwood oil. Wood oils were also extracted from Juniperus chinensis and J c. cv. torrulosa and analyzed. Considerable variation was found among the wood oils of putative C. funebris. The various lots of commercial Chinese cedarwood oils were very variable: alpha-cedrene (3.6-44.2%), beta-cedrene (3.5-11.5%), cis-thujopsene (1.9-37.4%), cedrol (1.7-23.4%). The presence of beta-biotol and beta-biotone in several Chinese cedarwood oils seems to indicate that wood of Platycladus orientalis (Biota orientalis) was utilized in their production. it appears that Chinese cedarwood oil is derived from a mixture of woods from several Cupressaceae species.