ESSENTIAL OIL, ETC 73 



6.— THE ESSENTIAL OIL OBTAINED FROM THE "NATIVE 

 SASSAFRAS" OF VICTORIA. 



By MARGARET SCOTT, B.Sc, communicated by DR. HEBER GREEN, Melbourne. 



Athersperma moschatum (miscalled " native sassafras ", for 

 it has no connection with the Sassafras officinalis of the B.P.) grows 

 luxuriantly in gullies among the ranges round Healesville and 

 Warburton. The oil from the leaves and bark was distilled by 

 Bosisto and exhibited at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, but 

 has not apparently been further examined, although decoctions of 

 the leaves and bark have some medicinal repute locally. 



For purposes of this research several sacks of leaves were 

 obtained and subjected to steady distillation in specially designed 

 stills, the yield of essential oil being about 2 per cent. This oil is 

 slightly heavier than water, and has a characteristic smell and a 

 pungent taste. Chemically, it was at once found to differ from 

 the official sassafras oil in not containing saffrol, and from euca- 

 lyptus in being free from cineol After a very tedious and careful 

 fractional distillation its main ingredients have been separated 

 and identified, and of these the chief is methyleugenol, a simple 

 derivative of eugenol, from which synthetic vanillin is made in 

 such large quantities. 



Two other ingredients present, in smaller quantities, are 

 pinene (similar to that present in some turpentines and eucalyptus 

 oils) and ordinary camphor. 



Still other substances are indicated, but their examination is 

 not as yet complete. 



It is proposed that this paper will be the forerunner of a series 

 of such investigations to be carried out at the Melbourne University 

 on the native plants of Victoria. 



7._SOME RExMARKABLE ESSENTIAL OILS FROM THE AUSTRALIAN 



MYRTACE^. 



By HENRY G. SMITH, F.C.S., Assistant Curator and Economic Chemist, Technological Museum, 



Sydney. 



Australia is exceedingly rich in plants belonging to the Myrtaceae, 

 and not less than three-fourths of the whole vegetation of the 

 continent are of this natural order. The leaves of the greater 

 number of the species of the various genera yield an essential oil 

 when distilled with steam, either in larger or smaller amounts. 

 Broadly speaking, there appears to be a similarity in the con- 

 stitution of the oils of the individual species of each genus, although 

 this rule canncrt; be carried tci>o far, as there are numerous exceptions, 

 often of a most remarkable character, as the various types of 

 eucalyptus oils verify. Varied as these products often are, yet, 

 so far as work has proceeded in the elucidation of the constitution 

 of the essential oils of the various Austrahan Myrtaceous plants, 

 it has been well demonstrated that the same species will always 



