JPIPERACEjF.. 189 



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distilled by himself from fresh, leaves, which had been in part 



reported in 1888, have been communicated to the GrenBan 



Chemical Soc 



The oil was 



pale gi*eenish-yellow^ became golden-yellow and brown on 



was slightly laevogyre, and had the sp. gr. 0*969 at 



exposure. 



15*^0. Caustic potash removed from the oil chavicol, a phenol of 

 sp. gr. 1-030 at 15^C., boiKng between 236° and 238'' C, and 

 having a peculiar odour^ somewhat resembling that of creasote ; 

 its composition is C^H^*^0 \ its aqueous solution is coloured 

 blue by ferric chloride, the colour disappearing on the addition 

 of alcohol ; its constitution is expressed by the formula 



H^ 0H(1) 

 ■^ ^ C^H^ (3). 



The crude cha^dcol seems to contain a i^mall quantity of 

 a phenol of somewhat higher boiling point, and in alcoholic 

 solution becoming blue with ferric chloride, Betle oil, 

 freed from phenol, did not yield, on fractional distillation, 



sufficient 



The 



fraction between 173*^ and 176*^ contained several terpenes, but 

 no pinene, and had a very agreeable lemon-like odour, while 

 a mint-like odour was observed in the fraction between 19< 

 and 220°. From the higher boiling fraction a hydrocarbon, 

 sesquiterpene, was obtained, having a slight odour, boiling at 

 260° C, and in acetic solution acquiring a deep indigo-blue 

 colour with bromine. Eijkman calls attention to the betle oil 

 obtained by Schimmel & Co. from dried leaves, and shows that 

 the oil did not contain the above compounds to which the fresh 

 leaves owe their characteristic odour, and which must have been 

 dissipated by drying, or oxidised by exposure, or lost by 

 remaining dissolved in the water ; the use of steam under pres- 

 sure may have volatilized more of the high-boiling phenol than 

 is obtainable by ordinary distillation. 



The oil distilled from the dry leaves by Messrs. Schimmel 

 & Co. was a slightly brown-coloured liquid, sp. gr. 1024 at 15°C. 

 It consisted up to about § or f of a phenol^ the boiling 

 point of which in partial vacuum, under a pressure of 12 mm.j 

 lay at 131° — 132° C, ; under ordinary atmospheric pressure it 



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