STORAX. 247 
even more, of crystallized cinnamic acid can be obtained. The 
properties of this acid are described under the article “Cinnamon.” 
Styracin can be isolated by ether, benzene, or alcohol after the 
styrolene and cinnamic acid have been separated out from the 
resin; it being insoluble in water and only volatile at a tempera- 
ture above red heat. 
It was found in 1839 that the Styracin discovered by Bonastre 
in liquid storax is converted, by boiling with caustic-soda solution, 
into cinnamic acid and an oily liquid which was termed Styracone. 
Later investigations * have shown that this is a mixture of 
phenylpropy] alcohol and phenylallyl alcohol, which last is also 
called Cinnamyl alcohol, or Styryl alcohol, or more conveniently 
Cinnyl alcohol. In order to prepare it, styrax is distilled with 
sodium-carbonate solution until styrolene no longer passes over, the 
aqueous solution containing sodium cinnamate removed, the resi- 
due distilled with caustic potash, and the cinnyl alcohol separated 
from phenylpropyl alcohol by the fractional distillation of the oily 
distillate. Pure styracin may also be distilled with caustic potash ; 
the cinnyl alcohol crystallizes out of the distillate, while any 
remaining in the solution is precipitated with salt or extracted 
with ether. Cinnyl alcohol crystallizes in long thin needles which 
melt at 33°, and have a pleasant smell of hyacinths; it boils at 
250°, is tolerably soluble in water, readily in alcohol and ether, 
and is oxidized to cinnamaldehyde by platinum black +. It is con- 
verted into phenylpropyl alcohol by the action of sodium 
amalgam on its warm aqueous solution, a little allyl-benzene 
being simultaneously formed. 
Styrax Calamita. 
The substance which bears this name is not the Storax Calamita 
of the Ancients, but a composition artificially made up of the 
pressed residue of the bark of Liguidambar Orientalis, from which 
the Liquid Styrax has been extracted. This cake of bark, called 
“ Cortex Thymiamatis,’ is coarsely pulverized and mixed with 
liquid storax in the proportion of three of the former to two of the 
latter. When first made it presents the appearance of a viscid 
mass, which after a few weeks becomes coated with small silver 
needles of styracin. It has a very sweet odour. 
* Ann. Chem. Pharm. exxxii. p. 22, and cxxxviil. p. 184. 
+ Ibid. xciii. p. 370. 
