YoL. XVII. No. 417. 



THE AGKICULTUKAL NEWS. 



117 



the latter being the sweetest sugar known, it is surprising 

 that perfectly pure mannose has only a slightly sweet taste 

 followed by a distinctly bitter one. 



A source of supply of the very rare trehalose, employed 

 in bacieriologicail and chemical research work, has been dis- 

 covered in St'/ag7//c/Ai kpiiUphylla, a plant of the dry south 

 western regions of the United States, obtainable in large 



• luantities. • • c ^i. 



The sugar galactose, which is needed by scientists.tor the 

 production of derivatives such as dulcite, is prepared from 

 the hydrolysis of milk sugar. It has however been shown 

 that a species of larch, a lumber tree of the Northwestern 

 States, contains a considerable quantity of a gum that by acid 

 hydrolysis yields galactose. , , , , • t 



Arabinose may be prepared readily by the hydrolysis ot 

 ■beet pulp. This also is used by bacteriologists, but its cost 

 has hitherto been almost prohibitive. 



During the last year two new sugars have been added to 

 the group by the work of La Forge, both of which have been 

 found to occur in natural products. Mano-keto-heptose \vas 

 found to occur free in the well-known avocado pear, bedo- 

 heptose was found in the free state in the stone crop {Seditm 

 specfiMle), a European plant now domesticated all over 



the world. , . , 



Xylose, which was first found in the gumnly portion ot 

 various woods, it is now stated can be obtained from the 

 acid hydrolysis of corn cobs, in yields of about 10 per cent. 

 If industrial uses could be found tor xylose, either m the pure 

 state or in the form of the syrup that results from the hydro- 

 lysis of the corn cobs, a very cheap and abundant waste 

 product might be put to profitable use. 



A POSSIBLE NEW SOURCE OF THYMOL. 



Attention was drawn in several numbers of the .J;,v7- 

 cidlitml Xnvs (Vol. XVI) to experiments that are being 

 conducted in more than one of these islands with regard to 

 the possibility of the remunerative cultivation in the West 

 Indies of the ajowm plant (Camni copticum) as a source ot 

 thymol, considering the present high price of this valuable 



antiseptic. . .. , , 



Before the war the production of thymol was practi- 

 cally a monopoly iu the hands of Germany, where the oil 

 was extracted from ajowan seeds imported chiefly from 

 India The scarcity of thymol, owing to war conditions, 

 led to the suggestion in the />'////'•//« <>f the /mpcnal Insti- 

 (uk Vol. XII, No. 12, 1914, that its manufacture should be 

 undertaken in the United Kingdom, and reference was made 

 to a number of other plants, which yield oils contaming 

 thyranl and wliich might be utilized as sources ot that 

 material. Thymol is now being commercially manufactured 

 in Great Britain, it is satisfactory to learn, from ajowan 

 seed imported from India and Spain, and its distillation has 

 also been undertaken in India itself. 



\mong the plants suggested for trial was Ocimum 

 -i,;rl,h a native of West Afri.A, very abundant in Sierra 

 Leone' and siid to occur also iu the West Indies. This plant 

 belonc's to the same genus >is the commonly cultivated 

 'pot 'hs.%\\' {Odmnm imsiliaim) which is often grown and 

 used as a pot herb, and flourishes in the.se islands. Octmum 

 viridr appears, however, to be a more vigorous grower than 

 its congener, as it is said to reach a height of from - to 

 6 feet in its native habitat. In Sierra Leone it is known as 

 the 'mosquito plant' on account of its supposed property ot 

 keepinc oft' these insects. Specimens of the leaves from 



Sierra Leone have been examined at the Imperial Institute, 

 and have yielded from 35 to 1-2 per cent, of oil eoiitainiag.-> 

 thymol in quantities varying from 32 to 6-5 per cent. 



According to the Bi(!letin of the Imperial Imtitute, 

 Vol. XV, No. 3, 1917, seed of the plant was obtained from 

 the Department of Agriculture, Sierra Leone, by the Imperial 

 Institute, and distributed to Seychelles, Cyprus, and the 

 East Africa Protectorate. The plant has grown well 

 in Seychelles, and two samples of oil distilled locally have 

 been forwarded to the Imperial Institute for examination. 

 In the cultivation experiment in Seychelles the .seedlings 

 when two months old were transplanted into good garden 

 soil, and when eight months old the bushes were 6 feet high. 

 When the plants were only four months old, and had just 

 started flowering, a trial distillation was made of some of the 

 leaves only. The yield of oil was 05 per cent. When ihe 

 plants were eight months old a distillation was made of the 

 shoots, that is to .say, of the green portions of the stem above 

 the part which turns brown, along with the leaves and 

 inflorescences attached to them. The yield of oil was 

 0-45 per cent, of the weight of the green material, and the 

 estimated yield per acre was about 35 B). of oil, the yield of 

 green material being reckoned at nearly 3| tons from one 

 cutting. It is however expected that five or six cuttings might 

 be made annually. 



When examined at the Imperial Institute, the oil from 

 the leaves alone was found to contain 62 per cent, of thymol, 

 while that from the shoots contained 52 per cent. .\ firm 

 of manufacturing chemists estimated the value of the oil as 

 approximately at from ns- to 6.v. per tt). in London. 



It would appear, therefore, that the oil from Ocimum 

 viride might be a useful source of thymol if it can be marketed 

 at a suitable price, and it has been .suggested that the 

 cultivation be continued in Seychelles, and that a trial 

 consignment of several hundredweight of the oil be 

 forwarded to the London market. 



Considering that the climatic conditions in Seychelles 

 are very similar to those obtaining in the West Indies, 

 a plant which flourishes there might very probably be equally- 

 suited to cultivaticn here. It might be advisable to make 

 experiments in some of these islands as to whether Ocimum 

 viride may not prove a remunerative crop, considering the 

 present high price of thymol. In Montserrat, for instance, 

 where bay oil is distilled, it might be quite feasible to 

 combine the two crops, and make the distillation locally in 

 the existing stills. 



Among plants suggested as a source of thymol, the 

 writer of this note has never seen suggested Culetis 

 anihoinicKS, which is known in these islands as wild thyme. 

 From the strong thymy odour of the leaves it would seem 

 likely that it contains aVrcentage of thymol. Experiments 

 in analysis of the leaves might be interesting work for some 

 of our agricultural chemists. The plant is certainly quite 

 naturalized in several of the West Indies, having been origin- 

 ally introduced from the East Indian Archipelago. 



Storm and flood have been responsible for heavy damage 

 of late in several sugar-cane districts. A cyclone and flood 

 in Mackay, Queensland, in January, resulted in some 

 1 2,000 tons of sugar being lost, while the general damage in 

 the district is put at U million sterling. Then in ihe IJeir^ 

 district in Portugucw" East Africa phenomenal rains have 

 inundated many scjuare miles of cane, and it is reported 

 besides, that a very large quantity of baa sugar has been 

 lost. The cane districts of Zululand also have suffered 

 from floods. (The /ifer/Hilio/iu/ Sugar Jounti/,'^l.9.vc\i 1918.) 



