186 PHILIPPINE RESINS, GUMS, AND OILS 



In experimenting with champaka flowers it is necessary to 

 work rapidly because a few hours after picking, the flowers 

 turn brown and begin to lose their fragrance. The oil obtained 

 from these flowers has been investigated by Bacon * and by 

 Brooks.f According to Bacon : 



The yield appears to be over 0.2 per cent. The crude oil on standing 

 separated a large amount of a crystalline solid. This was filtered and an 

 additional quantity of it was again separated by the addition of ether, in 

 which the solid is quite insoluble. The remaining oil, after standing for 

 some weeks in the laboratory, continued to solidify until it gradually 

 became semisolid. The second solid which separated was amorphous and 

 appeared to be resinous in nature. If this semisolid extract is treated 

 with 70 per cent alcohol, about half of it separates in the form of the 

 amorphous, brown, odorless body. This was filtered and the filtrate con- 

 centrated at 40° in vacuo until a brown oil separated, which had a very 

 fine odor of champaca, and was readily soluble in 70 per cent alcohol or 



30° 

 stronger. Our oil had the following constants: Specific gravity, ^-r^, 



30 

 0.9543; refractive index, N ^r, 1.4550; saponification number, 160. Another 



oil had specific gravity, ^^^ 1.020; refractive index, N ^^ , 1.4830; 



saponification number, 180. The second oil had the finer odor. The oils 

 were too dark to permit of determinations of the optical activity. * * * 



Fifty grams of champaka oil (soluble in 70 per cent alcohol, ester 

 number 180) were saponified with 10 grams potassium hydrate in 100 cubic 

 centimeters of 95 per cent alcohol. After heating for one hour with a 

 reflux condenser, two volumes of water were added; 4.5 grams of an 

 amorphous solid separated. This was filtered and the filtrate was separated 

 into neutral, acid, and phenol fractions. By saponification the champaka 

 oil loses all of its characteristic odor, which therefore must be due to 

 esters. 



The phenol fraction (1.5 grams) proved to consist principally of iso- 

 eugenol, as benzoyl iso-eugenol melting at 103° could be obtained from it. 

 The total acid fraction weighed 15 grams. None of this acid boils below 

 140° at 40 millimeters; hence there is no methyl ethyl acetic acid. No acids 

 have as yet been identified. 



The neutral portion weighed 23 grams and had an odor somewhat similar 

 to that of oil of bay. 



Bacon found that the solid which crystallizes from the freshly 

 prepared oil, after repeated crystallization from benzene and 

 petroleum ether, forms odorless, white crystals. 



Brooks examined two samples of champaka oil and obtained 

 the constants recorded in Table 29. 



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

 Journal of Science, Section A, Volume 4 (1909), page 131; IV, Volume 5 

 (1910), page 262. 



t Brooks, B. T., New Philippine essential oils. Philippine Journal of 

 Science, Section A, Volume 6 (1911), page 333. 



