EDITORIALS. 



THE FLUCTUATION IN THE VALUE OF YLANG-YLANG OIL 

 AND SOME OF ITS CAUSES. 



Various causes have been assigned to the decline in value which ylang- 

 ylang oil has suffered in the last few years. It is stated sometimes that 

 chemical studies on products of this class enable better synthetic products 

 to be manufactured. This is often quite the truth. However, there are 

 many instances where substances are elaborated by nature and may be 

 manufactured directly from the plants containing the desired product 

 cheaper than by any known laboratory method of synthesis. This always 

 will be true of rubber, many of the sugars, and most of the alkaloids 

 and the essential oils. In the case of the essential oils entering into the 

 manufacture of the better grade of perfumes, the relative valuation 

 depends, to a degree comparable probably only with works of art, upon 

 the quality of the finished product. Some of the largest manufacturers 

 of the essential oils who are working directly from flowers, state that the 

 introduction of synthetic preparations has not made serious inroads upon 

 their business. The majority of the synthetic preparations are not better 

 than second quality natural products. This undoubtedly is true of ylang- 

 ylang oil.^ In the discussion of the fluctuations in the price of ylang- 

 ylang oil this point should be kept in mind. 



Briefly, the chief cause for the present decline in prices appears to be 

 overproduction. The political disturbances of a decade ago and the 

 precarious state of trade in some districts greatly curtailed the production 

 of ylang-ylang oil. For some time there was the keenest competition 

 among distillers in the purchase of flowers. The increase in the demand 

 for and cost of labor and the general increase in cost of living subse- 

 quent to the American occupation perhaps contributed to increase the 



* The work done in the chemical laboratory of the Bureau of Science by Dr. 

 R. F. Bacon on ylang-ylang oil has been of distinct value to local distillers and 

 dealers in this oil, in enabling buyers of oil produced in the provinces and ex- 

 porters to corroborate their opinion as to whether or not a given sample of oil 

 is first or second quality, by means of exact analytical data. A few cases of dis- 

 pute between buyers and sellers of ylang-ylang oil have been tried in the courts 

 of Manila, and the results of the researches of the laboratory have been of assist- 

 ance in such instances. 



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