Eremophila mitchellil

[Agamemnon]

I was sitting around a campfire recently, and a log of Eremophila mitchellil (false sandlewood) was burning away and I remarked on the pleasant smell exuding from it.

A friend of mine, an old cattle grazier made the comment that it was great for starting a campfire as even dead dry it has a high amount of volatile oil in it. He said he remembers his grandfather telling him that one night he was boiling a billy for tea on the fire and a piece of Eremophila mitchellil was sticking up over the billy and the heat of the fire made several drops of the timber's oil drop into the billy. Because his grandfather was in a hurry to get going he decided to make tea with the now contaminated water anyway. He drank the tea, packed up his camp and hopped onto his horse. For the next two hours he felt confused and started having hallucinations and swears it was the false sandlewood. I know that recently this timber has been identified as a termite resistant resource.

What would be the best way to extract oil from the dried timber?

Edited May 14, 2006 by Agamemnon

[Ed Dunkel]

What would be the best way to extract oil from the dried timber?

Try heating it over a billy .

But seriously, chop the wood up and boil it in water and the oil should boil out of the wood and sit on the surface (if it isn't too volatile).

If the oil is volatile you can distil it off and collect it. If it is a little less volatile you can use steam distillation.

You could also extract the wood chips with solvents (methanol, ether, hexane etc..)

It depends a bit on the oil.

[Agamemnon]

Try heating it over a billy .

But seriously, chop the wood up and boil it in water and the oil should boil out of the wood and sit on the surface (if it isn't too volatile).

If the oil is volatile you can distil it off and collect it. If it is a little less volatile you can use steam distillation.

You could also extract the wood chips with solvents (methanol, ether, hexane etc..)

It depends a bit on the oil.

Thanks for that. Will try a boil and report results after I get my gnome to sample it

[Rev]

so you are going to bioassay emu poison?

have you done much background research/ so if you become ill you have arough idea on what is causing you gief?

[Agamemnon]

Dont worry Rev, Im not going to put my gnome into any undue risky undertaking...after all we only get one gnome. We will be approaching this very cautiously with appropriate research beforehand and contingency plans for the unplanned!

[Torsten]

so you are going to bioassay emu poison?

Is it poisonous to emus? I thought the fruit were part of their diet and actually needed the emu digestion for germination.

the seeds of some species taste of nutmeg