ESSENTIAL OILS 181 



veniently 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 Paraiiaque 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 Reunion, Mauritius, and 

 the West Indies. 



Family ARACEAE 



Genus ACORUS 

 ACORUS CALAMUS L. LuBlGAN or SWEET Flag. 



Local names: Acoro (Spanish); bueng (Pampanga) ; Inbigdn (Tagalog, 

 Bikol, Bisaya) ; ddlau (Ilocos Sur, Abra, Union); ddrmi, dengau (Bontoc). 



CALAIVIUS 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 If 

 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 f 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). 



t Parry, E. J., The chemistry of essential oils and artificial perfumes. 

 (1908). 



