— 108 — 



the market This has also had the effect of keeping the price in China 

 within certain bounds, from 4/3 d. to 4/5 d., apparently with but little 

 eagerness to buy at the higher limit. Tonquin staranise oil was only 

 offered at comparatively high quotations, for which reason the turnover 

 in the past few months has been but slight. The British Consul at Haiphong 

 states that the exports of Tonquin staranise oil have been as follows: — 



in 1908 29000 kilos, value € 17950 



„ 1909 50000 „ „ „ 22437 



A considerable proportion of these shipments has passed into our hands. 



Meeting with a star anise oil which appeared to be suspicious on 

 account of its peculiar odour and taste as well as because of its abnormally 

 low specific gravity and its low congealing point, Parry 1 ) was induced to 

 subject the sample to careful examination, with the result that he concluded 

 the suspect oil to be adulterated, probably with some fraction of camphor 

 oil. J. C. Umney 2 ) and H.R.Jensen 3 ), who have examined the same or 

 a similar star anise oil, have arrived at the same conclusion. 



It is evident that all these three cases relate to a parcel of star anise 

 oil of which a sample was also forwarded to us for examination at the 

 time by Mr. Parry, and which proved to be an oil poor in anethol, but 

 not adulterated. The oil in question showed sp. gr. 0,9717 (20°), opt. rot. 

 + 0°18', sol. p. +12,7°. The constants of the parcel tested by Parry 

 were, in one case: d 20 o 0,971, « D + 0°20', sol. p. +10,5°. Umney and 

 Jensen record similar values. All these samples, therefore, had a lower 

 sp. gr. and also a lower sol. p. than has normal star anise oil, (d 2 oo 0,980 

 to 0,990; « D slightly to the left, up to — 2°, in isolated instances 

 slightly to the right; sol. p. -\- 15 to +18°) which might be caused 

 purely by a deficient anethol-content, as well as by an adulteration. The 

 English chemists regard adulteration as proven, basing their assertion 

 merely upon the fact that under fractional distillation the several fractions 

 of the suspected oil behaved differently from corresponding fractions of 

 equal size of a normal star anise oil which was used for purposes of 

 comparison. But such a conclusion is not warranted in the absence of 

 any further evidence, such as, say, the detection of a constituent which 

 does not occur in normal star anise oil, for as we shall show, when an oil 

 poor in anethol is distilled by the method adopted by Parry, as well as 

 by Umney and Jensen, it yields fractions which differ from the corresponding 

 fractions of a normal oil in precisely the same manner as did those of 

 the suspected oil under review. The English chemists have quite neglected 

 to consider that when a star anise oil is deprived of its anethol the 

 remaining constituents accumulate, (are enriched) a fact which of course 



!) Chemist and Druggist 77 (1910), 687; Americ. Perfumer 5 (1910), 196. 



2 ) Perfum. and Essent. Oil Record 1 (1910), 236. 



3 ) Pharmaceutical Journ. 85 (1910), 759. 



