84 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 



quantities, yet, the question of cultivation might even here be 

 worthy of consideration, because the concentrated growth of the 

 species required would give greater facility for collection and dis- 

 tillation, and consequently the oil might be supplied at even a 

 cheaper rate than at present. 



The supply of Phellandrene oils will naturally be drawn from 

 those plants yielding it in greatest abundance. The species which 

 yields the largest amount of oil is the type E. amygdalina, from 

 which often more than 4 per cent, is obtained, but the oil of this 

 species contains about 25 to 30 per cent, of Eucalyptol, and at 

 certain times of the year the amount of phellandrene is small. 

 Both E. dive';, the " Broad leaf Peppermint," and E. radiata, the 

 " White Top Peppermint," yield oils consisting almost entirely of 

 phellandrene, as does also E. delegatensis, and if that constituent is 

 required to be present in greatest amount these species are the best 

 to exploit. The yield of oil from commercially collected material of 

 E. dives is about 2i to 3 per cent., and that from E. radiata 2 to 

 2| per cent. There is not much difference in the physical 

 properties of the oils of these two species, as is seen from the fol- 

 lowing : — 



From these results it would be easy to formulate a standard 

 to govern purit}^ and so prevent sophistication. 



6. — Pinene Oils. 



The high price lately ruUng for turpentine leads one to consider 

 whether it might not be possible to prepare that substance from 

 Australian material. The work lately completed at the Museum on 

 the " Pine:^ of Australia" (Sydney, 1910) has demonstrated that 

 turpentine, identical in composition with that of America or of 

 Europe, can be prepared from only one Austrahan plant belonging 

 to the Coniferre. The oleo-resinous exudation of Agathis robusta, the 

 " Kauri Tree " of Queensland, yields a turpentine identical with the 

 American, but the tree hardly occurs in sufficient abundance to en- 

 able an industry to be estabhshed without it is cutlivated. It may be 

 well to point out, however, that there are two species of Eucalyptus 

 growing in this State, from the leaves of which a turpentine identical 

 in composition with the commercial article can be distilled. The 

 dextrorotatory form is obtained from E. dextropinea, and the 

 Isevorotatory from E. Icevopinea. Unfortunately the yield of oil 

 from both these species is, in comparison with the phellandrene 



