120 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
The Cananga is also cultivated in the Malay Peninsula, Java, 
and the Moluccas, and probably its cultivation could be easily and 
profitably extended in many other localities of similar climate, so 
as to meet the continually increasing demand for the oil and 
enable consumers to obtain it at a moderate price. The Javanese 
oil is at present considered the finest and of superior perfume to 
the Indian. 
According to Guibourt * the so-called ‘ Macassar oil,” which 
for many years has been celebrated as a “ hair-oil,” is cokernut oil 
perfumed by digestion with the flowers of Cananga odorata and 
Michelia Champaca and coloured by turmeric. Such unguents 
have been in use in India from ancient times, and are known as 
“ Borbori” or ‘ Borriborri,” for anointing the hair and the whole 
body, particularly during the rainy season. 
The yield of essential oil from Cananga is somewhat small, 
being, according to Reymann, of Manila, about 25 grams from 
5 kilograms of flowers. 
An examination of Ylang-ylang (Aylan-gilan) oil was made in 
1873 by H. Gal, and the results of his investigations presented in 
a memoir to the French Academy of Sciences +. The specimen of 
Ylang-ylang oil examined by Gal is stated in his report to have 
been obtained “by distillation from the flowers of the ‘Unona 
odoratissima, an Anonaceous tree growing in the Antilles and 
Jamaica.” His interesting study may be abstracted as follows :— 
“'The oil has a density of 0°980 at a temperature of 15°C. It 
passes over entirely in distillation without leaving any carbonaceous 
residue, but within very extended limits of temperature, ebullition 
commencing at about 160° C. and the temperature continuing to 
rise till beyond 300°C. The oil is insoluble in water, only partially 
soluble in alcohol, but entirely soluble in ether. The portion 
insoluble in alcohol and which can be dissolved in ether appears 
after the evaporation of that solvent as a semi-fluid transparent 
mass ; this product amounts to about one fourth of the oil. Nitric 
acid acts upon the Ylang oil with great energy, intense vapours 
being disengaged in the cold, and by the addition of water a resin 
is obtained presenting a great analogy with that which is formed 
by oxidation of benzoin by means of the same reagent. Sodium 
* Hist. des Drogues, 1850, iii. p. 675. 
+ ‘Comptes Rendus,’ June 16, 1873. 
