A yellow - orange or reddish liquid with a herbaceous - spicy medicinal odour, much likes thyme.Thymol, pinene, cymene, dipentene, terpinene and carvacrol, among others. Ajowan contains 40 - 55% of thymol. The extraction of thymol is produced by treating the oil with a warm solution of sodium hydroxide; this alkali dissolves the thymol and on dilution with hot water the undissolved oil (terpenes, etc.) rises to the surface. Actions and Uses :Powerful antiseptic and germicide, carminative.It has been used extensively for the isolation of thymol, but this has largely been replaced by synthetic thymol. Thymol finds no place in perfumery but the residual oil, after extracting the crystalline thymol from ajowan oil, which amounts to about 50% of the original oil, is generally sold as a cheap perfume for soap - making and similar purposes under the name 'Thymene'. The oil is occasionally used in the production of soap. back to properties & uses page
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