Calamus Oil
(Acorus calamus)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION A reed like aquatic plant about 1 metre high, with sword-shaped leaves and small greenish-yellow flowers. It grows on the margins of lakes and streams with the long-branched rhizome immersed in the mud. The whole plant is aromatic.
DISTRIBUTION Native to India; the oil is mainly produced in India and Russia and to a lesser extent in Europe.
HERBAL / FOLK TRADITION The name derives from the Greek calamos meaning ’reed’. The properties of the herb are mainly due to the aromatic oil, contained largely in the root. It used to be highly esteemed as an aromatic stimulant and tonic for fever (typhoid), nervous complaints, vertigo, headaches, dysentery, etc. It is still current in the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia, for ’acute and chronic dyspepsia, gastritis, intestinal colic, anorexia, gastric ulcer.’ In Turkey and especially in India (where it is valued as a traditional medicine), it is sold as a candied rhizome for dyspepsia, bronchitis and coughs.
ACTIONS Anticonvulsant, antiseptic, bactericidal, carminative, diaphoretic, expectorant, hypotensive, insecticide, spasmolytic, stimulant, stomachic, tonic, vermifuge.
EXTRACTION Essential oil by steam distillation from the rhizomes (and sometimes the leaves).
CHARACTERISTICS A thick, pale yellow liquid with a strong, warm, woody-spicy fragrance; poor quality oils have a camphoraceous note. It blends well with cananga, cinnamon, labdanum, olibanum, patchouli, cedarwood, amyris, spice and oriental bases.
PRINCIPAL CONSTITUENTS Beta-asarone (amounts vary depending on source: the Indian oil contains up to 80 per cent, the Russian oil a maximum of 6 per cent), also calamene, calamol, calamenene, eugenol and shyobunones.
SAFETY DATA Oral toxin. The oil of calamus is reported to have carcinogenic properties.
AROMATHERAPY / HOME USE None. ’Should not be used in therapy, whether internally or externally.’
OTHER USES Extensively used in cosmetic and perfumery work, in woody / oriental / leather perfumes and to scent hair powders and tooth powders in the same way as orris. Calamus and its derivatives (oil, extracts, etc.) are banned from use in foods.
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