Prickly Ash Essential Oil
Prickly ash essential oil is the steam-distilled volatile oil of the dried pericarp of Zanthoxylum bungeanum and related species of the same genus, the spice sold in Chinese cooking as hua jiao and in English as prickly ash or Sichuan pepper. It is a pale yellow to yellow-green mobile liquid with a sharp citrus and pine top note over a warm, faintly medicinal spice body.
The aroma is built mainly on monoterpenes and monoterpene alcohols, with linalool, limonene, beta-myrcene, sabinene, terpinen-4-ol and geraniol the largest peaks in most lots, and the linalool to limonene balance the main marker separating harvest regions and species. The tingling, numbing sensation associated with the whole spice comes from hydroxy-alpha-sanshool and its relatives, which are non-volatile alkylamides. These do not carry over in steam distillation, so a true distilled oil delivers aroma without numbing, and pungency has to be supplied by a solvent-extracted oleoresin or by an infused pepper oil.
The oil is soluble in ethanol and edible oils, insoluble in water, and oxidises and darkens on air exposure, so it is stored cold in filled and sealed containers.
We source bulk Prickly Ash Essential Oil from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Shaanxi. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
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- Function
- Essential oil
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Clear pale yellow to yellow-green mobile liquid |
| Odour | Fresh citrus and pine over a warm spicy body, characteristic |
| Relative Density (20°C) | 0.855 to 0.890 |
| Refractive Index (20°C) | 1.466 to 1.482 |
| Optical Rotation (20°C) | -15° to +10° |
| Linalool | 20.0 to 55.0 percent by GC |
| Limonene | 5.0 to 25.0 percent by GC |
| Solubility | Soluble in 95 percent ethanol and edible oils, insoluble in water |
| Acid Value | Not more than 2.0 mg KOH/g |
| Moisture | Not more than 0.5 percent |
| Heavy Metals (as Pb) | Not more than 10 mg/kg |
| Lead | Not more than 2 mg/kg |
| Arsenic | Not more than 1 mg/kg |
Common Markets Grades
Grading follows the raw spice. Red prickly ash from Zanthoxylum bungeanum, grown mainly in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, gives the warmer and more classically spicy oil, while green prickly ash from Zanthoxylum armatum and Zanthoxylum schinifolium gives a fresher, sharper, more lime-like oil that is traded separately. Oils are bought against a gas chromatography profile rather than a single assay figure.
Three product forms move through the same supply chain and should not be confused. Steam-distilled essential oil is the aroma-only material described here. Oleoresin, made by hydrocarbon or carbon dioxide extraction, carries both the volatile oil and the sanshool amides and is sold on a numbing intensity basis. Infused pepper oil, in which the spice is heated in a refined vegetable oil, is a dilute culinary product rather than a concentrate. Standardised dilutions of the essential oil at 1 to 10 percent in propylene glycol or triethyl citrate are used for flavour dosing.
Applications
- Hotpot and spicy soup bases, where the oil restores the top note lost when whole spice is boiled for long periods
- Compound seasoning powders and sauce packs for chilled and frozen ready meals
- Marinades and brines for braised meat and poultry, contributing citrus lift against the fat
- Instant noodle seasoning oil packets, blended into the refined oil phase
- Prepared chilli oils and dressing oils, used alongside chilli oleoresin for aroma balance
- Snack seasoning for extruded and fried products, applied through an oil slurry on the tumbler
- Savoury flavour compounding, as a natural top note in Sichuan style flavour profiles
- Vinegar and dipping sauce blends, added under emulsification to avoid separation
- Fragrance and household products in the spicy citrus accord
China Manufacturers of Prickly Ash Essential Oil
Top Prickly Ash Essential Oil manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
Prickly ash is used in the United States as a culinary spice, and oils and extracts of this type are handled as natural flavouring substances, with the relevant industry status being a FEMA GRAS listing for the flavour material rather than a dedicated food additive regulation. There is no separate colour or preservative approval involved, and use levels in food are self-limiting because of the intensity of the aroma.
In the European Union the oil falls under Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 as a natural flavouring preparation, so it carries no E number and is used within the general flavouring framework rather than as an additive. Where the oil goes into cosmetic or household fragrance use, the IFRA standards and the allergen declaration requirements of the EU Cosmetics Regulation apply to constituents such as limonene and linalool. Codex has no commodity standard for the oil itself, and buyers normally reference an ISO or in-house gas chromatography specification.
Manufacturing Process
Ripe pericarp is harvested in late summer, sun or hot air dried, and the seeds and stalk fragments screened out, since the black seed contributes fixed oil and bitterness rather than aroma. The dried husk is coarsely milled immediately before distillation to open the oil glands without letting the freed volatiles evaporate, and is often steeped briefly in water to soften the tissue and improve steam penetration.
The charge is packed into a stainless steel still and distilled with low pressure steam for four to eight hours. The vapour is condensed, and the oil separates from the distillation water in a Florentine flask, floating on the aqueous layer. The water is commonly cohobated back through the still to recover dissolved linalool. Crude oil is dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate, polish filtered, and analysed by gas chromatography, then blended across lots to a fixed profile before packing under nitrogen. Yield on dry husk is normally in the range of one to four percent depending on species and season.
