SASSAFRAS. 35 



of oil appears small, barely 1 per cent., compared with the yield 

 obtained in Europe from imported chips, which is found to be 

 about 2 and even 2 J per cent. The yield, of course, varies with 

 the quality of the chips, i.e., the part of the tree derived from, and 

 the amount of bark on them ; the bark yielding at least twice as 

 much oil as the wood. 



The oil when first distilled is colourless or pale yellow, but it 

 becomes reddish by age. The sp. gr. of American oil has been 

 recorded as 1*070 to 1*085 ; samples distilled from imported chips 

 have been found to vary between 1-06 and 1*09, but as a general 

 rule the figures 1*065 at 15^ C. may be taken as standard require- 

 ment. The New York firm of Schimmel & Co. exhibited at the 

 Chicago Exhibition two samples of sassafras oil distilled at their 

 works, viz. : — 



Sample 1. — Oil from root-bark. Yield 7*4 per cent. 



Sp. gr. at 15^ C. 1*075. 

 Optical rotation -f- 3^ 16' 

 (100 m.m. tube). 

 „ 2. — Oil from wood of root. Yield 0*9 per cent. 



Sp. gr. at 15^ C. 1*075. 

 Crude oil of sassafras is composed of about 90 per cent, of 

 >S'a/7'o/, C;^o H 10 O2 held in solution by 10 per cent, of Safrene. 

 CjoH-^g. It also contains a very small amount of a phenol-like 

 body,* which gives a bluish-green coloration with ferric chloride. 



In order to separate the pure Safrol from the oil, the fraction of 

 oil boiling between 228^ and 235^ C. is refrigerated to — 25°, at 

 which temperature the safrol is deposited in strongly-refractive, 

 mono-symmetric crystals of more than a decimetre in length and 

 of 3 to 4 centimetres diameter, melting at 8 to 12° C. (53°*6 r.).f 

 The large crystals of safrol are very little softer than those of 

 gypsum. Safrol has a pleasant aromatic odour, boils at 232° — 

 233° C, is insoluble in alkalies, and is not attacked by sodium. 

 Its sp. gr. in the crystalline state is 1*245, and in the liquid state 

 1*104 at 15° C. ; it is then optically inactive. Safrene, on the 

 contrary, is dextrogyre ; its sp. gr. is 0*834 and its boiling point 

 156° C. The phenol-like body above-mentioned, as contained in 

 the crude oil, is separable by the aid of caustic potash from the 



* Monatscliefte xi. 101. 



+ Fliickioer in Pharm. Journ. [3] xvii., p. 989. Compare with Fogg. Ann. 

 <;lviii., p. 244, and Jahresb. Chem., 1876, p. 910. 



