172 PHILIPPINE RESINS, GUMS, AND OILS 
fragrance is due to certain chemical compounds, numbers of 
which exist in the flowers only in very minute quantities. Many 
of the chemical substances inherent in plants may be prepared 
synthetically. However, the odor of these synthetics is quite 
different from that of the flowers, for the latter’s scent can be 
secured only when all the substances contained in the flower 
are combined in the proper proportions. The fragrant flower 
was the first perfume and still is the first. Although a large 
number of synthetic perfumes are manufactured, the con- 
sumption of natural perfumes is increasing. The former are 
frequently used to fortify the natural perfumes and are also 
mixed with them to produce new blends. 
Family GRAMINEAE 
Genus ANDROPOGON 
ANDROPOGON CITRATUS DC. TANGLAD or LEMON GRASS. 
Local names: Bardniw (Pangasinan); tangladd (Tagalog, Bikol). 
LEMON-GRASS OIL 
This grass is frequently cultivated, especially in India and 
Ceylon, for its fragrant leaves. Bacon * remarks that in the 
Philippines: 
It is cooked with stale fish to improve the taste and is used as a flavor 
in wines and various sauces and spices; it is also used medicinally, being 
applied to the forehead and face as a cure for headache, and an infusion 
is held in the mouth to alleviate the suffering of toothache. 
The roots resemble ginger in flavor, though less pungent. 
They are used as a condiment and for perfuming hairwashes 
of gogo. 
When the grass is distilled it yields commercial lemon-grass 
oil, or Indian verbena oil, which has a reddish-yellow color and 
the intense odor and taste of lemons. Lemon-grass oil is used 
in making perfumes, especially ionone (synthetic essence of 
violets). 
According to Hood + about 100,000 pounds of lemon-grass oil 
are used annually in the United States and the consumption of 
it for the manufacture of ionone and other perfumery purposes 
is continually increasing. He describes the distillation of the 
grass as follows: 

* Bacon, R. F., Philippine terpenes and essential oils, III. Philippine 
Journal of Science, Section A, Volume 4 (1909), page 111. 
+ Hood, S. C., Possibility of the commercial production of lemon-grass 
oil in the United States. United States Department of Agriculture Bul- 
letin No. 442 (1917). 
€ 
