As you know from our previous posts, there are three common ways to adulterate an oil. An oil can be watered down with a carrier oil, but after that adulteration gets more complicated. A common oil, lemon, has several ways in which it can be adulterated. Remember, when an oil is adulterated the constituent benefits can change and result in negative side effects.
Aromachemical Adulteration
A common way to adulterate lemon oil is by using natural isolates like like D-limonene, beta pinene, or myrcene, or gamma terpinene as well as fossil fuel based citral.
Similar Oils or their Isolates
Another popular method to adulterate lemon is by adding a similar oil or its isolates to create something that smells like lemon oil. An example of adding a similar oil is when producers take beta-pinene, gamma-terpinene, and myrcene and add them to orange oil to make it smell like lemon oil. Orange has similar constituents to lemon but is often short in beta-pinene gamma-terpinene, and myrcene, so by adding them to orange, the orange smells more like lemon. An example of adding isolates is when a producer combines citral and bisabolene Beta from a similar oil and mixes them with other constituents to make lemon oil. Cheaper citruses like mandarin, tangerine, and clementine are often used to make adulterated lemon oil to save costs and increase profit margin.
