Natural aroma chemicals for use in foods and beverages - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 214

This approach is not unique to the citrus oils; for example, mint oils ( Mentha
arvensis and variations thereof) yield menthol [10.12] very easily, simply by
cooling the oil and fi ltering off the resulting crystalline menthol. Distillation of
the resulting 'dementholised oil' gives a terpene fraction, which can be fractionally
distilled to give natural cis -3-hexenol [10.13].

[10.12] [10.13]

Other important natural aroma chemicals from essential oils include linalool
[10.14] from ho wood oil, cinnamaldehyde [10.15] from cinnamon bark oil and
(mostly) cassia oil, eugenol [10.16] from clove oil and citral [10.17] from Litsea
cubeba oil. In the latter case, production is de facto solely for the production of
natural citral.

[10.14] [10.15] [10.16] [10.17]

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10.4.2 Natural aroma products from food by-products and 'waste streams'
This potentially is the most important approach for the future. There are ethical
issues arising from the growth of non-food crops, most recently around palm oil
and its contribution to deforestation in Indonesia. The growth of crops solely for
'chemicals' is certainly questionable, to say the least, and unlikely to win favour
with the wider public. This is especially a concern in the production of natural
aroma chemicals, when marketing departments are at the same time trying to
associate the word 'natural' with a green, unspoiled, picture, a veritable Garden of
Eden. . . . In this context, green credentials deriving from the use of material
which would otherwise be disposed of can offer great advantage.
The stones, or pits, of peach and apricot can be processed to give natural
benzaldehyde [10.18]. The leaves and stems of tomato vine can be processed to
yield 2-isobutylthiazole [10.19] and 2-isopropyl-4-methylthiazole [10.20].