ESSENTIAL OILS 179 
Beoriently be harvested by washing away the soil with a stream of water, 
catching detached rootlets with a coarse screen. One hundred plants of 
the above lot, treated in this manner, gave 60 kilos of roots (wet), and 
100 plants at Paranaque in a sandy beach soil, gave 23 kilos of roots. 
The latter were presumably three to four months old and contained a 
large percentage of oil. 
Andropogon zizanioides is a coarse, erect, tufted, perennial 
grass 1 to 2 meters in height. It has fragrant, fibrous roots. 
The leaves, arranged in two rows, are about 1 meter long, 1 cen- 
timeter or less in width, and folded. The panicles are terminal, 
erect or greenish, and about 20 centimeters long. 
This grass abounds in all parts of the Archipelago. It is iden- 
tical with the khus-khus or khas-khas of India. It grows abun- 
dantly in Burma and is also found in Réunion, Mauritius, and 
the West Indies. 
Family ARACEAE 
Genus ACORUS 
ACORUS CALAMUS L. LUBIGAN or SWEET FLAG. 
Local names: Acéro (Spanish); bueng (Pampango); lubigdn (Tagalog, 
Bikol, Bisaya) ; dalau (Ilocos Sur, Abra, Union) ; dérau, dengau (Bontoc). 
CALAMUS OIL 
The rhizome of sweet flag has an agreeable, aromatic odor, 
and when powdered is used for sachet and toilet powders. The 
*rhizome yields calamus oil when distilled. This oil is used for the 
preparation of aromatic cordials and liqueurs, for flavoring beer, 
and also in making perfumes. Throughout the Malayan region 
and the Philippines it is highly prized for medicinal purposes. 
Askinson * gives the essence of calamus as consisting of 12 
ounces of calamus oil dissolved in 5 quarts of alcohol. Although 
"this essence has a pleasant odor, it is not a very valuable per- 
fume and is usually employed as a basis for cheap perfumery 
preparations. 
Parry + states that Schimmel obtained 0.8 per cent of oil from 
the dried rhizome, while the fresh rhizome yielded about 2.0 per 
cent. According to Parry, a thorough chemical investigation 
of this oil has not been made. However, it is supposed to con- 
tain pinene and a sesquiterpene. Schimmel found that the spe- 
cific gravity varied from 0.960 to 0.970 and the optical rotation 
from + 10° to + 35°. Oil from the Japan calamus root, how- 
ever, gave a specific gravity of 1.000. Pure samples of calamus 


» * Askinson, G. W., Perfumes and cosmetics, (1915). 
7 Parry, E. J., The chemistry of essential oils and artificial perfumes. 
(1908). 
