pinus_roxburghii

Pinus roxburghii Sarg. syn. Pinus longifolia Roxb. ex Lamb. - Pinaceae - Indian longleaf pine, chir pine, Emodi-Kiefer

Large tree, 30-50m high; native to the Himalayas (Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet, West Himalaya).

„It is also tapped commercially for resin. On distillation, the resin yields an essential oil, commonly known as turpentine, and non-volatile rosin. The proportion of rosin and turpentine oil in chir pine is 75% and 22% respectively with 3% losses, etc.“ wikipedia

„The manufacture of turpentine in Indiafrom the oleoresin of Pinus longifolia Roxb., is now an established industry, and large qantitites of the oil are distilled… on careful distillation, the presence of the following constituents was definitely proved: l-α-pinene, β-pinene, a new bicyclic terpene, for which the name d-carene was proposed, and a tricyclic sesquiterpene, longifolene.
[Simonsen, John Lionel. „LXI.—The constituents of Indian turpentine from Pinus longifolia, Roxb. Part I.“ Journal of the Chemical Society, Transactions 117 (1920): 570-578]

α-pinene

β-pinene

δ-3-carene

longifolene

„P.roxburghii turpentine contained significant amounts of α-pinene, β-pinene and Δ-3-carene, the latter (ca 50%) predominating.“
[Coppen, John JW, Janet M. Robinson, and A. N. Kaushal. „Composition of xylem resin from Pinus wallichiana and P. roxburghii.“ Phytochemistry 27.9 (1988): 2873-2875]

Main components of the essential oil isolated from P.roxburghii oleoresin by hydrodistillation (yield 20.2%) were α-pinene (26.8%), β-pinene (12.9%), 3-carene (43.8%), and longifolene (8.8%).
[Ayub, Muhammad Adnan, et al. „Short path molecular distillation of the essential oil from Pinus roxburghii oleoresin affords volatile fractions with powerful antioxidant and antimicrobial activities comparable with common synthetic agents and antimicrobials.“ Heliyon 11.3 (2025)]

(+)-Longifolene is a sesquiterpene that occurs up to 30% in the resin of Pinus roxburghii Sarg., the Indian longleaf pine or chir pine. It is used in the perfume industry to manufacture isolongifolene epoxide, which is isomerized to the corresponding ketone isolongifolanone (Piconia; commercial odorant; woody earthy camphoraceous scent), which is also ketalized with ethylene glycol to the commercial odorant Ysamber K (woody amber scent).
[Elterlein, Franziska, Nikolas Bugdahn, and Philip Kraft. „Sniffing Out the Sustainable Future: The Renewability Revolution in Fragrance Chemistry.“ Chemistry - A European Journal (2024): e202400006.]
see also [Scent and Chemistry, Günther Ohloff, Wilhelm Pickenhagen, Philip Kraft, Wiley-VCH, 2012, 168-172]