— 28 — 



as possible, and that with the prices now ruling for the raw material, 

 turpentine oil, it is impossible to make the manufacture pay. The com- 

 pany, however, was in possession of a new process for the preparation 

 of a cheap turpentine oil, for the carrying-out of which it was intended 

 to float a subsidiary company. The writer of the editorial comment asks 

 how it would be possible by such means to bring about a considerable 

 reduction in the cost-price of synthetic camphor without causing first of 

 all a general reduction in the price of turpentine oil as a result of the 

 working of the new process, and he enquires whether, for this reason, it 

 would not be more remunerative to sell the new cheap turpentine oil as 

 such, instead of using it to prepare artificial camphor. 



Camphorwood Oil, spurious. In a previous Report 1 ) we referred to 

 the fact that we had been able, from so-called "spurious camphorwood 

 oil" to isolate an aldehyde showing a remarkable similarity to the aldehyde 

 prepared by us from the oil of Perilla nanMnensis, the only difference being 

 that the rotation was reversed. Since then, Semmler and Zaar-) have more 

 closely examined the oil (which we had placed at their disposal), with the 

 result that they have found the aldehyde of the "spurious camphor- 

 wood oil" to be identical with d-perillic aldehyde. This fact was proved 

 by conversion into d-limonene as well as by the preparation of the oxime 

 and of perillic acid 3 ). d-Perillic aldehyde was isolated with sodium bisul- 

 phite and found to possess the following constants: b. p. 99 to 104° 

 (9 mm.), d 180 0,965, [«] D + 135,6°, n D 1,50803. In addition to d-perillic 

 aldehyde the oil contained myrtenal 4 ), an aldehyde which had been pre- 

 pared some years ago by Semmler and Bartelt by oxidising myrtenol, but 

 which was not hitherto known to occur in any essential oil. In order to 

 isolate the myrtenal the oil was shaken up with neutral sodium sulphite. 

 From the sulphite solution, which had previously been rendered alkaline, 

 the aldehyde was driven off by steam, when the perillic aldehyde remained 

 in solution — probably as a non-volatile hydrosulphonic acid deriva- 

 tive. The purified myrtenal possessed the following properties: b. p. 89 

 to 92° (11 mm.), d 20 o 0,9859, « D + 13,6°, n D 1,50618. The semicarbazone 

 had m. p. 230°. From the myrtenal oxime (b. p. 125 to 128° at 9 mm.; 

 d 2 io 1,0292; [«] D + 42°; n D 1,53803) the authors prepared the myrtenal 

 nitrile which, when saponified, yielded myrtenic acid: m. p. 54°, b. p. 149 

 to 152° (9 mm.), d 220 1,0712, n D 1,50618. 



The joint occurrence of perillic aldehyde and myrtenal in "spurious 

 camphorwood oil" is most interesting, because the mutual relations of 

 these two aldehydes are the same as those of pinene and limonene. 



*) Report October 1910, 146. 



2 ) Berl. Berichte 44 (1911), 815. 



3 ) Comp. Report April 1911, 76, 93. 



*) Berl. Berichte 40 (1907), 1363; Report October 1907, 64. 



