Abstract: High quality cedar wood oil is recovered from raw cedar wood with substantially improved efficiency employing the solvent extraction method of this invention. By submerging cedar wood pulp or sawdust in a suitable water insoluble solvent for a predefined time period, a purified cedar wood oil extract is easily attained after filtration of the cedar wood pulp and distillation removal of the solvent. Furthermore, depending upon the end use or operating system, the solvent extraction method of this invention may be conducted as either a batch process or a continuous process.