414 ANISTJAL REPORT SMITHSONHAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



The principal species used in modern perfumes and cosmetics include 

 Evernia 'prunastri^ E. furfuracea^ E. rtiesornorpha, Rwmalina fraxinea 

 Ach., R. farinacea^ R. pollinaria Ach,, and perhaps other species of the 

 Ramalinae, though the last-named genus is not rated as so valuable 

 as the former. Lobaria pulmonaria (Mousse de la base du Chene) is 

 used to some extent and is considered a more costly substance, perhaps 

 because of its relative scarcity. Oak-moss (E. prunastri) of Europe 

 is collected in shaded, damp habitats occurring in the central mountain 

 ranges of Europe, the Piedmont of Italy, and the forests of Czechoslo- 

 vakia and Herzegovina. Not only the locality but the substratum is 

 given a great deal of attention by the perfumer who differentiates 

 between those plants that grow on oak (greenish) and those found on 

 conifers (grayish) ; in the latter case rightly so, since resins may be 

 included with the lichen, rendering it less desirable for the trade. In 

 all instances the crop is gathered by peasants or shepherds, as in 

 Yugoslavia, and pressed into large bales for export. The American 

 supply before the war was derived from Yugoslavia, amounting to a 

 few tons yearly at a cost of from 5 to 7i^ cents per pound f . o. b. New 

 York City. During the war a few companies, formerly established in 

 France and Holland, became interested in developing the American 

 market, but the lack of apt collectors willing to work for wages per 

 pound equivalent to or slightly higher than those of the European 

 gleaner rendered the commercial possibilities for the use of American 

 plants somewhat doubtful. Experiments, including a number of 

 North American species, have been carried out with little success, 

 except with those traditionally used in the Old "World. Of these there 

 are sufficient quantities available in the northern forests of the United 

 States and Canada to supply the domestic trade. 



Chemical properties of essential oil of lichens. — The use of dried, 

 pulverized oak-moss in the perfume industry is restricted, the prin- 

 cipal sale being of extracts, essences, and resinoids. Gildermeistcr 

 and Hoffmann (13) state that the method of treatment involves ex- 

 hausting the lichen by means of volatile substances and then remov- 

 ing the resins, waxes, and chlorophyll with acetone. Addition of al- 

 cohol gives an "extract of oak-moss" which may be used in this form 

 or may be further concentrated in order to obtain a semifluid sub- 

 stance. French and German industrial research during the last 30 

 years has revealed much of the chemical nature of the extracts, gums, 

 and mucilages produced when processing lichens, Gattefosse (13) 

 made a study of the essential oils and alcoholic extracts of all those 

 lichens that were utilized as oak-moss, obtaining data that caused him 

 to conclude that oil of oak-moss was almost exclusively a compound 

 of phenol called lichenol, an isomeric compound of carvacrol. These 

 results were verified by St. Pfau (13) who further expressed the 

 opinion that sparrassol, a metabolic product of the fungus Sparassis 



