COMPARATIVE ANALYTICAL STUDY OF VARIOUS 



OILS IN THE CHAULMOOGRA GROUP 1 



By Granville A. Perkins 



Chief Chemist, Culion Leper Colony, Philippine Health Service 



Aurelio 0. CRUZ 

 Junior Chemist, Philippine Health Service 



Although there is no longer room for doubt that chaulmoogra 

 oil and certain hydnocarpus oils contain substances which are 

 valuable in the treatment of leprosy, the relative value of the 

 various oils and of the substances which they contain still re- 

 mains unknown. The discovery of chaulmoogric and hydno- 

 carpic acids by Power, 2 the successful clinical use of pure esters 

 of these acids by Hollmann, Dean, and McDonald, 3 and the 

 bacteriological studies of Walker and Sweeney,* have given a 

 scientific basis to chaulmoogra therapy in a qualitative and 

 preliminary way; but much remains to be done before the 

 bacteriologist and clinician can be given a satisfactory chemical 

 description of the chaulmoogra group of oils. 



The information contained in Table 1 summarizes practically 

 all of the analytical results on the chaulmoogra group which 

 have hitherto been published by various investigators, although 

 much more work has been done than one would infer from a 

 glance at this table. Compared to many tables of oil "constants" 

 this table may appear complete, but an examination of the 

 literature represented discloses three deficiencies which are very 



1 Published by permission of the Director of Health and the Philippine 

 Leprosy Research Board. Submitted for publication June 6, 1923. 



'Power, F. B., and Goraall, P. H., Journ. Chem. Soc. 85 (1904) 838; 

 Power, F. B., and Barrowcliff, M., Journ. Chem. Soc. 87 (1905) 884. 



'Hollmann, H. T., and Dean, A. L., Journ. Cutan. Dis. 37 (1919) 375; 

 McDonald, J. T., Journ. Am. Med. Assoc. 75 (1920) 1485. 



* Walker, E. L., and Sweeney, M. A, Journ. Infect. Dis. 26 (1920) 238. 



