Editing Cedar oil (section)

== History ==

=== Cedar of Lebanon ===
[[File:Cèdre du Liban Barouk 2005.jpg|thumb|''Cedrus libani'']]
The cedarwood oil of the ancients, in particular the [[Sumer]]ians and [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]], was derived from the [[Cedrus libani|Cedar of Lebanon]] (''Cedrus libani''), a [[Cedrus|true cedar]] native to the northern and western mountains of the [[Middle East]]. The once-mighty Cedar of Lebanon forests of antiquity have been almost entirely eradicated, and today no commercial oil extraction is based on this species. 

=== Sumer ===
Cedarwood oil was used as the base for paints by the ancient Sumerians. They would grind [[cobalt]] [[chemical compound|compound]]s in a [[Mortar and pestle|mortar]] to produce a blue [[pigment]]. They could obtain green from [[copper]], yellow from [[antimonate|lead antimonate]], black from [[charcoal]], and white from [[gypsum]].

=== Ancient Egypt ===
One of three methods of ancient Egyptian [[embalming]] practices employs the use of cedarwood oil. This was a less costly method than the best known of the ancient Egyptian practices of removing internal organs for separate preservation in [[canopic jar]]s. The practice<blockquote>...called for the injection of cedar oil into body cavities without [[Disembowelment|evisceration]]. The body was laid in natrum or [[natron]]—a fixed [[alkali]]—for the prescribed period, after which the cedarwood oil, which had dissolved the soft organs, was released; and the body, its flesh dissolved by the natron, was reduced to preserved skin and bones.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Habenstein |first1=Robert W. |title=The History of American Funeral Directing |last2=Lamers |first2=William M. |publisher=Burton & Mayer, Inc. |year=2007}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Classical antiquity ===
[[File:Pliny_the_Elder,_Loggia_del_Consiglio,_Piazza_dei_Signori,_Verona_(37520060770)_(cropped).jpg|alt=Head of a statue of Pliny the Elder|thumb|169x169px|Pliny the Elder]]
As the Roman naturalist and author [[Pliny the Elder]] (23/24 –79 CE) in his encyclopedic work ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' ({{langx|la|Naturalis Historia}}) describes how aromatic oils are produced through the destructive distillation of pine wood, he also mentions that a similar substance, “cedrium” (cedar oil), is produced in Syria, and how it is used.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pliny the Elder |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/50041 |title=The Natural History of Pliny: Translated, with Copious Notes and Illustrations |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |year=1855 |volume=III |translator-last=Bostock |translator-first=John |chapter=XVI.21(11) |orig-date=Pliny published the first 10 books in 77 CE. The rest was published posthumously by Pliny the Younger |translator-last2=Riley |translator-first2=Henry Thomas |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59131/pg59131-images.html#BOOK_XVI_CHAP_21}}</ref>{{Blockquote|text=In Europe, tar is extracted from [''[[Pinus mugo]]''] by the agency of fire. ... The first steam that exudes flows ... into a reservoir made for its reception: in Syria this substance is known as “cedrium”; and it possesses such remarkable strength, that in Egypt the bodies of the dead, after being steeped in it, are [[Mummy|preserved from all corruption]].}}

=== Light microscopy ===
Until the development of synthetic [[immersion oil]] in the 1940s, cedarwood oil was widely used for the oil immersion objective in [[optical microscope|light microscopy]].