Clary Sage Oil, Absolute and CO2: What Differs?

Search for clary sage and you will find three very different things sharing one name: a steam-distilled essential oil, an absolute, and a CO2 extract. They come from the same flowering plant, but each method gathers different parts of it, and the biggest difference is a heavy, waxy molecule called sclareol.

Clary Sage Essential Oil bottle

Clary Sage Essential Oil

Our own Clary Sage Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

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Three ways to capture one plant

Steam distillation carries off what is volatile and leaves the rest in the still. That is how the oil we sell is made, and how the oil in the European Food Safety Authority's 2024 opinion was made: steam distillation of the fresh or dried flowering stems, with the condensed oil separated from the water (EFSA FEEDAP Panel, 2024).

Solvent extraction takes more. A clary sage concrete is a waxy extract made with n-hexane, and an absolute is typically refined from a concrete. A 2023 study then ran supercritical CO2 over a clary sage concrete in two steps. The first step pulled out the lighter compounds, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. The second, at slightly higher pressure and lower temperature, collected sclareol and its relatives, with total yield rising from about 6.0% to 9.3% by weight as the CO2 got denser (Zanotti et al., Molecules, 2023).

Why sclareol is the headline

Sclareol is a diterpene made mainly in the glandular hairs on the plant's calyces. It is not very volatile, so a still captures only a little of it. EFSA's six-batch GC-MS analysis of distilled oil put sclareol at a mean of 0.51%, with a range of 0.32 to 1.18% (EFSA, above). Plant researchers note that sclareol makes up roughly 1 to 2.5% of the inflorescence itself and that commercial sclareol is solvent-extracted from the plant (Caniard et al., 2012).

Why would anyone want it? Because sclareol is the usual starting material for ambroxide, the ambergris-like perfume ingredient (Chalvin et al., 2021). So there are two clary sage industries: one for the fragrant distilled oil, one for the heavy fraction that feeds other fragrance chemistry. The absolute and CO2 extract sit closer to the second.

Numbers also shift with method. Six Greek samples hydrodistilled in a lab ran 7.6 to 11.2% sclareol (Tomou et al., 2024), far above the commercial oil figures, a reminder that process decides what ends up in the bottle.

What this means for your choice

Reasoning from the above, a distilled oil, an absolute and a CO2 extract are different materials, and a recipe written for one does not transfer to another by swapping drop for drop. A heavy extract can be dense and amber-leaning where the distilled oil is lighter and tea-like.

Whichever you choose, ask for the report on that exact product. Our GC/MS walkthrough shows how to read one, the linalyl acetate post covers what makes the distilled oil taste of tea and hay, and the seed oil comparison untangles another near-miss on the shelf. If you need a composition breakdown for ours, ask us in writing through the contact page.

One plant, three characters: the oil is the bright top of the harvest, and the extracts are the deep, sticky heart.

Clary Sage Essential Oil bottle

Clary Sage Essential Oil

Clary Sage Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $19.99

Shop Now →

Sources & Further Reading