— 68 — 



alcohol obtained represents a mixture. The fraction of opopanax oil 

 which was distilled off in vacuo, boiled at ordinary pressure as a 

 sesquiterpene chiefly from 260 to 270 . This fraction was dissolved 

 in 3 to 4 parts ether, and saturated with hydrochloric acid gas. After 

 evaporating the ether, a large quantity of a crystallised hydrochloride 

 remained behind, which, after repeated recrystallisation from alcohol, 

 melted at 8o°. A benzene solution of the hydrochloride proved to 

 be optically inactive. 



According to the analysis, the compound appears to have the 

 composition C 15 H 24 • 3 H CI. The hydrocarbon of opopanax oil would 

 therefore be a sesquiterpene with 3 double-linkings. The hydrocarbon 

 regenerated from the hydrochloride by boiling with sodium acetate in 

 glacial acetic acid, distilled at 3 mm. from 114 to 11 5 . At atmo- 

 spheric pressure it passed over with decomposition from 260 to 285 . 



The constants of the regenerated hydrocarbon were: 

 d 15 0,8708; «d+o°; n D26 o 1,48873. 



If the regenerated hydrocarbon is saturated with hydrochloric acid 

 gas, the original hydrochloride of the melting point 8o° is again formed. 



Oil of Oregon balsam. In the laboratory of Edward Kremers, 

 Frank Rabak 1 ) has submitted to a more detailed examination Oregon 

 balsam on whose origin and composition up to the present the most 

 diverse and partly contradictory opinions prevailed. According to the 

 very meagre literature hitherto published, Oregon balsam is said to 

 have been met with in commerce for the first time in 1874. Dowzard 2 ) 

 even considered it a solution of colophonium in oil of turpentine, 

 whose only object was to serve as an adulterant of Canada balsam; 

 such an adulteration, however, would be readily detected. 



The balsam examined by Rabak had been supplied by a New York 

 firm, and been obtained from Pseudotsuga mucronata Sudworth, as was 

 established by R. H. Dennis ton by an examination of the branches 

 of trees which, according to authentic information, had been employed 

 for the production of Oregon balsam. Rabak obtained from the 

 balsam, by steam-distillation, 25% of an essential oil, the bulk of 

 which distilled over below 160 . The oil has a pleasant turpentine- 

 like odour. The specific gravity fluctuated in different preparations 

 between 0,822 and 0,873, whilst the difference in the angles of rota- 

 tion was but slight (« D — 34°37 / to — 39° 55'). In fractionating the 

 essential oil, 71,8 to 83,4% passed over up to 160 ; from this 

 portion relatively pure 1-pinene could be obtained by a second frac- 

 tional distillation. The 1-pinene was identified as such, by conversion into 

 pinene nitrosochloride, nitrosopinene, and pinene nitrol benzylamine. 



*) Pharmac. Review 22 (1904), 293. 

 2 ) Chemist & Druggist 64 (1904), 439. 



