— 40 — 



comparatively quickly from all these blows of fate, and has gradually pro- 

 gressed until it has reached its present state of prosperity. 



At the Imperial Institute 1 ) in London a sample of cloves from Mauri- 

 tius yielded 18,1 ° o oil possessing the following properties: di 5 o 1,0514, 

 « D — 0°23', soluble in 2 vols, and more of 70°/o alcohol, eugenol-content 

 89,1 °/o- According to expert-opinion the cloves grown in Mauritius equal 

 good, pale Zanzibar quality, but at present the cultivation in Mauritius 

 is still in the initial or experimental stage. 



Cocoanut Oil, Essential. In order to render crude fatty cocoanut 

 oil edible it is necessary to free it from its evil-smelling constituents, 

 consisting principally of fatty acids, and to treat it, after the removal of 

 these acids, with steam under pressure. In addition to the fatty oil carried 

 over, the distillate contains an essential oil of disagreeable odour which 

 has been further investigated by Haller and Lassieur 2 ). These authors found 

 it to contain methylheptylketone (m. p. of the semicarbazone 119 to 120°) 

 and methyl-n-nonylketone (m. p. of the oxime 44 to 45°; m. p. of the semi- 

 carbazone 122°), and they proved that these two ketones also occur in 

 the original oil and were not (as might have been possible), formed in the 

 course of the distilling process. The oil further contains small proportions 

 of an optically active aldehyde, which has not been further investigated. 



By hydrogenating the methylnonylketone (by passing it over nickel 

 heated to 250 to 300°) the authors obtained a hydrocarbon C 9 H 20 , b. p. 

 150 to 155°, as well as a pinakolin C22H44O, the latter occurring in the 

 form of a crystalline mass melting at 27°. The oxime of this pinakolin 

 melted at 233 to 237° (15 mm.), and its semicarbazone at 225 to 227°. 



Copaiva balsam Oil. For detecting the presence in genuine copaiva 

 balsam of African copaiva balsam (Illurin balsam), and gurjun balsam, 

 T. T. Cocking 3 ) recommends a method which is said to have shown itself 

 as practically useful and reliable. It consists in distilling the balsam in 

 vacuo or with steam and afterwards dividing the resulting oil into 10 equal 

 fractions by distillation in vacuo and determining the rotation of these 

 fractions. With pure Maranham and Para balsam oils all the fractions 

 were lasvorotatory and showed a very gradual increase in rotation from 

 the first to the tenth fraction. The differences between the rotations of 

 the tenth and the first fractions ("difference value") were invariably ne- 

 gative and ranged in the case of the separate oils from —3,7 to —7,6°. 

 The rotation of the first fraction was a little below that of the original 

 oil. African copaiva balsam yields an oil of which the separate fractions 

 are dextrorotatory. There the rotations show a decidedly higher rate of 



!) Bull. Imp. Inst. 8 (1910), 3. 



2 ) Compt. rend. 150 (1910), 1013. 



3 ) Chemist and Druggist 77 (1910), 119. 



