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Rosewood oil is a valuable essential oil, especially in perfumery. It contains the substance linalool, which has a number of uses.
The oil is extracted from the wood of Aniba rosaeodora. When it arrives at the distillery, the wood is chipped, and then steam distilled. Each tree yields about 1% oil by weight of wood. After a history of massive over-harvesting, and species depletion, efforts are underway to cultivate Aniba rosaeodora, and to develop techniques for extracting the essential oil from leaves. Because of high value of the rosewood oil, its common to keep it secured.
Because many unrelated woods are called "Rosewood", some confusion has arisen about the origin of "Rosewood oil". Members of the genus Dalbergia (e.g. "Brazilian Rosewood"-Dalbergia nigra, and "Indian Rosewood"- Dalbergia latifolia) have never been a source of "Rosewood oil".