PHILIPPINE TEKPENES AND ESSENTIAL OILS, III. 131 



like anise, but like heliotrope. This is not trae for the Philippine species 

 of this plant. 



There are two varieties of flowers known as champaca in the Philip- 

 pines, the yellow and the white, Michelia champaca and M. longifolia Bl. 

 Of these the yellow has much the finer odor and it is considered by 

 experts to be bj'' far the finest perfume in the Philippines, the scent 

 being at the same time very soft, strong, and lasting. Small parcels of 

 champaca oil, principally distilled from the white variety, have been 

 sold in Europe, the sujDply coming mostly from Java. The Filipinos are 

 very fond of the flowers, they being made into wreaths and sold in small 

 lots at the rate of a peso to a peso and a half per kilo. One attempt at 

 steam distillation of an oil from the flowers was not successful. The 

 yield of oil was very small and did not have an odor greatly resembling 

 that of the flowers. Enfluerage with paraffine oil has been successfully 

 applied. The paraffine oil is allowed to stand over the flowers for twenty- 

 four hours, dra^^^l off, filtered and made up to the original volume before 

 being aj^plied to fresh flowers. By ten such extractions a very fine, 

 strong odor is imparted to the paraffine which is now suitable as a base 

 for perfumes, or the champaca oil may be extracted from the paraffine 

 with strong alcohol. The loss in paraffine is large, so that we shall 

 endeavor to extract the ffowers with petroleum ether, alcohol, ether and 

 other volatile solvents. Very few flowers were available this year because 

 of the man}' tj'ijhoons during the flowering season, which lasts from 

 September to ^November. The tree is readily propagated from the seeds 

 and begins to bear in three years. The quantity of flowers which can 

 be obtained from one tree is much less than from the ylang-ylang, but 

 the price of champaca extracts is enormously higher than those from 

 the latter. 



We have also attemisted to obtain a perfume oil from the flowers 

 of Plumeria acutifolia Poir., which is used as an ornamental tree in 

 the cemeteries throughoiit the Islands. The fragrance of the flowers 

 is faint, but characteristic, and the flower is supposed to be the source 

 of the perfume known as "frangipani." I distilled 40 kilos of flowers 

 with steam, but obtained no oil, nor even an aqueous distillate of pleasant 

 odor. Many extraction experiments with different solvents have shown 

 that the perfume is very easily destroyed by heat so that the temperature 

 used in handling these flowers must never rise above 40°. Extraction 

 with low-boiling petroleum ether and distillation of the petroleum ether 

 in vacuo gives a gummy oil with a satisfactory odor. The best results 

 which we have obtained thus far are by enfluerage with paraffine oil, 

 the operation being carried out as detailed above under champaca. The 

 season, weather conditions, and time of day seem to have a very pro- 

 nounced effect on the amount of perfume in these flowers, and we have 

 not yet worked out all these factors. 



