GALBANUM. 323 



liferoue with concentrated caustic lye, it splits up into resorcin, carbonic 

 acid and formic acid. 



Umbelliferone is also produced from many other aromatic umbelli- 

 ferous plants, as Angelicct, Levisticum and Meuiii, when their respec- 

 tive resins are submitted to dry distillation. According to Zwenger 

 (1860) it may be likewise obtained from the resin of Daphne Mezereum 

 L. The yield is always small ; it is highest in galbanum, but even 

 in this does not much exceed 0*8 per cent, reckoned on the crude 

 drug. 



By submitting galbanum-resin to dry distillation, there will be 

 obtained a thick oil of an intense and brilliant blue,^ which was noticed 

 as earh' as about the year- 1730 by Caspar Neumann of Berlin. It is a 

 liquid having an aromatic odour and a bitter acrid taste ; in cold it 

 deposits crystals of umbelliferone, which can be extracted by repeatedly 

 shaking the oil with boiling water. A small amount of fatty acids is 

 also removed at the same time. Submitted to rectification the crude 

 oil at fii-st yields a greenish portion and then the superb blue oil. 

 Kachler (1871) found that it could be resolved by fractional distillation 

 into a colourless oil having the formula C^"H'®, and a blue oil to which 

 he assigned the composition C^^H^^O, boiling at 289° C. As to the 

 hydrocarbon, it boils at 240' C, and therefore differs from the essential 

 oil obtained when galbanum is distilled with water. The blue oil, after 

 due purification, agrees, according to Kachler, with the blue oil of the 

 flowers of Matncai'ia Charaomilla L. Each may be transformed by 

 means of potassium into a colourless hydrocarbon, C^**H^*; or by 

 anhydride of phosphoric acid into another product, C^'^H", likewise 

 colourless. The latter, as well as the former hydrocarbon, if diluted 

 with ether, and bromine be added, assumes for a moment a fine blue 

 tint; the colourless oil as afforded by the drug on distillation with 

 water assumes also the same coloration with bromine. 



By fusing galbanum-resin with potash, Hlasiwetz and Barth (1864) 

 obtained crystals (about 6 per cent.) of Resmxin or Meta-Dioxyhenzol, 

 together with acetic and volatile fatty acids. The name of this remark- 

 able substance alludes to Orcin, which had been extracted in 1829 by 

 Robiquet from lichens. The formula of Resorcin, C^H^OH)", shows at 

 once its relations to Orcin, C®ffCB['(OH)-. Resorcin has been ascer- 

 tained to be frequently produced by melting other resins with potash ; 

 it has also been prepared on a large scale for the manufacture of the 

 brilliant colouring matter called Eositi. Galbanum-resin treated with 

 nitric acid yields Trinitroresorcin C*H(NO')'(OH)', the so-called 

 Styphnic Acid. 



If galbanum, or still better its resin, is very moderately warmed 



with concentrated hydrochloric acid, a red hue is developed, which 



turns violet or bluish if spirit of wine is slowly added. Asafcetida 



treated in the same way assumes a dingy greenish colour, and am- 



moniacum is not altered at all. This test probably depends upon the 



formation of resorcin, which in itself is not coloured by hydrochloric 



acid, but assumes a red or blue colour if sugar or mucilage or certain 



other substances are present. It is remarkable that ammouiacum, 



though likewise yielding resorcin when fused with potash, assumes no 



^ We have found it best to mix the gal- ice-stone ; the oil is then easily and 

 banum-resin with coarsely powdered pum- abundantly obtainable. 



