ESSENTIAL OILS 185 



Oil of ginger is obtained by distilling the ginger root. It has 

 a greenish-yellow color and is very aromatic though not pungent. 

 It is slightly soluble in alcohol. 



Ginger oil, and also the alcoholic extract of ginger roots, are 

 used for flavoring beverages. 



Bacon * distilled two lots of Philippine ginger roots and 

 examined the distillates. He describes his results as follows: 



* * * I made two experiments on the distillation of native ginger 

 roots. In the first one, 50 kilos of the chopped roots gave only 25 grams 

 of oil. For the second, 132 kilos were purchased in the market at Mal- 

 abon at 22 centavos, (11 cents United States currency) per kilo and 

 immediately distilled. There were obtained 95 grams (0.072 per cent) of 

 a light yellow oil, having the odor of ginger and also a strong smell, much 

 like that of orange-peel oil. 



This oil had the following properties: 



Specific gravity ^= 0.8850. 

 Refractive index, N^= 1.4830. 



Optical rotation, A-V =:_5.°9.f 



Saponification number, 14. 



It is easily and completely soluble in two or more volumes of 90 per 

 cent alcohol. 



It is seen that oil from the Philippine ginger differs quite markedly in 

 its properties from that distilled from the Jamaica or African varieties 

 and resembles some Japanese oils examined by Schimmel and Company in 

 its ready solubility in 90 per cent alcohol, and its negative optical rotation. 



Family MAGNOLIACEAE 



Genus MICHELIA 



MICH ELI A CHAMPACA L. (Fig. 60). Champaka. 



Local names: Champakang-puld (Manila); sampdka (Rizal). 



CHAMPAKA OIL 



Oil obtained from the flowers of this species is used as a 

 perfume. 



Roure-Bertrand Fils J state in their bulletin that the perfume 

 of Philippine champaka flowers is stronger and sweeter than 

 that of the flowers obtained from Singapore, Penang or Co- 

 lombo. 



* Bacon, R. F., Philippine terpenes and essential oils, IV. Philippine 

 Journal of Science, Section A, Volume 5 (1910), page 259. 



t In the original, the minus sign is omitted, apparently through error, 



since Bacon says, in the body of the paper, that the oil has a negative 



rotation. 



$ Bulletin of Roure-Bertrand Fils, Volume 1 (1909), page 26. 



