— 104 — 



their present level in January. It is notorious that of recent years quite 

 a number of firms have sold sandalwood oil almost without profit and it 

 is therefore not surprising that the opportunity of establishing the article 

 upon a reasonable and proportionate scale of prices was seized with rare 

 unanimity. As already stated, the principal consumers now appear to be 

 liberally supplied, so that there seems to be no likelihood of a further 

 advance for some little time to come, but when the cheap supplies in 

 consumers' hands are exhausted, it is probable that still higher prices 

 are to be expected. Our sandalwood oil distilling plant, which is one of 

 the sights of our works, has been fully occupied throughout in the manu- 

 facture of an oil which is highly esteemed everywhere not only because 

 of its santalol-content (average 94% C15H24O), but also because of the 

 delicacy of its odour. In accordance with our practice in our April Report, 

 we present on pp. 102 and 103 tables giving details of last year's auctions, 

 in particular a comparative record of the prices realised in the past two 

 years for each variety of wood. 



The conditions at present prevailing in the sandal wood oil business 

 are exposed in the result of an examination of a series of oils published 

 in the Chemist and Druggist 1 ). With all these oils a guarantee of a 

 definite santalol-value was given. Of 17 samples, partly put up in cap- 

 sules, with a guaranteed total santalol-value of 94°/ , only six, strictly 

 speaking, answered the guarantee, in three others the guaranteed value 

 was approximately reached (93°/<>) but the remainder were decidedly defi- 

 cient in santalol, the santalol-value in two cases being as low as 72 and 

 86°/ respectively, these oils being undoubtedly adulterated. Out of three 

 other samples with a guaranteed santalol-content of 90°/o, two were very 

 much below the mark, showing respectively only 76 to 84% total santalol- 

 Such a state of affairs is the natural result of the malpractice which con- 

 sists in offering sandalwood oil at cut prices while at the same time 

 guaranteeing as high a santalol-content as possible, in the usually well- 

 founded expectation that any deficiency which may exist in the value will 

 remain unnoticed, because the majority of the buyers are not in a posi- 

 tion to make a santalol-determination. We therefore again repeat our ad- 

 vice to use caution when buying sandalwood oil, and we draw attention 

 once more to the fact that we shall always be pleased to examine in our 

 laboratory, free of charge, samples submitted to us for our opinion. 



In the notes on the examination of a first runnings of East Indian 

 sandalwood oil published in our last Report, we stated (p. 125) that the 

 fractions boiling between 210 and 220° contained an alcohol Ci H 16 O, 



*) Chemist and Druggist 77 (1910), 762. 



