120 BACON. 



These preliminary experiments seemed to indicate that the proper time 

 for harvesting is about three months after planting, at which time, of 

 course, the yield of roots is not nearly so heavy. The oil in the roots 

 is a protection, and is withdrawn when the plant flowers and seeds. We 

 have planted all of our vetiver by simply burying pieces of divided root 

 tufts in the ground. "We have as yet made no experiments on the 

 propagation of the grass from the seed. It was" found that the roots 

 can very conveniently be harvested by washing away the soil with a stream 

 of water, catching detached rootlets with a coarse screen. One hundred 

 plants of the above lot, treated in this manner, gave 60 kilos of roots (wet) 

 and 100 plants at Paranaque in a sandy beach soil, gave 23 kilos of roots. 

 The latter were presumably three to four months old and contained a 

 large percentage of oil. 



THE COMPOSITION OF VETIVEE OIL. 



24> 



Genvresse and Langlois ^° found in vetiver oil a sesquiterpene, C15H, 

 which they termed vetivene, a sesquiterpene alcohol, C15H24O, vetivenol, 

 and an acid G^JI^^O^. They assign the vetiver odor to an ester of this 

 acid and vetivenol. I am inclined to believe that there may be quite 

 marked differences in the composition of the oil of vetiver due to dif- 

 ferences in the age of the roots, methods of storing, distillation, etc., as 

 I have noted that distillates from various lots of roots often had markedly 

 different odors. One oil had very little of the distinctive vetiver odor 

 and reminded me very strongly of gurjun balsam. Another on saponifi- 

 cation with alcoholic potash gave large quantities of benzoic acid. 



One hundred grams oil (Experiment No. 4) with a strong and pleasant vetiver 

 odor were saponified for one hour on a steam bath with an excess of alcoholic potash. 

 The product was poured into water and separated into neutral and acid 

 products in the usual manner. There were obtained 19 grams of acids, the odor 

 resembling that of fatty acids. The neutral oils retained a very strong odor of 

 vetiver. Purification through the lead salt did not give a crystalline acid, there- 

 fore, the acids were distilled in vacuo, and after two svieli distillations gave a 

 40 per cent yield of a body boiling between 200° to 205° at 4 millimeters' 

 pressure. This acid was a light yellow, viscous oil with a fatty odor like that 

 of oleic acid. With phenolphthalei'n as an indicator, 1.7850 grams acid required 

 7.0 cubic centimeters N sodiimi hydroxide for neutralization, the sodium salt 



30° 

 being a noncrystalline, soapy mass ; the acid itself had a refractive index, N — — 



= 1.4850. Tliis refractive index precludes the possibility of a sesquiterpene acid, 

 as is suggested by Genvresse and Langlois. The analysis is as follows: 



(1) 0.210 gram acid gave 0.5730 gram 00^ and 0.1945 gram H.O. 



(2) 0.1870 gram acid gave 0.5125 gram CO^ and 0.1650 gram H.O. 



c 



Calculated 

 for C,^U.2^0■, 

 (per cent). 



75. 



Found 

 (per cent). 



74.4 



Found 

 (per cent). 



74.63 



H 



10.7 



10.19 



9.86 



Na 



9.3 



9.0 





'Compt. rend. Acad. sci. (1902), 135, 1059; Ohem. Ztg. (1902), 26, 501. 



