— 41 — 



aldehyde. As regards acids, benzoic acid was found to be present in the 

 saponification-liquor. The benzaldehyde-content of the oil is about 6%» 

 but it only contains 0,5°/o benzoic acid, and Brooks surmises that the 

 last-named body is only formed by oxidation of the aldehyde or of the 

 benzyl alcohol. 



Champaca flowers contain a cristalline substance, for which Bacon 

 sets up the empirical formula Ci 6 H 2 o05. In contradistinction to Bacon's 

 observations, Brooks found that this substance reacts quantitatively with 

 bisulphite solution, but that it cannot be recovered from the bisulphite- 

 compound. This peculiarity renders it not improbable that the group 

 CH : CH • CO is present in this body 1 ). The fact that the substance is a 

 ketone is proved by its behaviour towards ammoniacal silver solution and 

 magenta solution. The phenylhydrazone melts at 161°. The ketone does 

 not react with acetanhydride, and with acetyl chloride it resinifies. When 

 heated with an excess of alcoholic potash solution it gives rise to neutral 

 succinate of potassium. It would seem that the succinic acid occurs in 

 the ketone-molecule in the form of a neutral ester. In order to identify 

 the alcohols which were associated with the succinic acid, the ketone was 

 saponified with aqueous soda liquor, but only ethyl alcohol could be de- 

 tected. Experiments at saponifying the body with soda liquor or with dilute 

 acids were unsuccessful. It follows that one of the carboxyl-groups of the 

 succinic acid is esterified with ethyl alcohol and the other with an alcohol 

 C10H12O2. 



A communication by Brooks 2 ) to another journal contains in substance 

 the same information as that abstracted above, but in addition we take 

 from it the following particulars: in order to establish the existence of 

 oxidase in the flowers, they were crushed below water. The process of 

 crushing must be carried out under exclusion of air, by pouring a layer 

 of paraffin oil upon the water, as otherwise the solution immediately as- 

 sumes a brown colour. A yellow liquid is then formed, which gives the 

 colour reactions with «-naphthol and j?-phenylenediamine that are typical 

 of oxidase. When the solution is heated on the water-bath the activity 

 of the enzyme is destroyed, and it yields no further colour-reactions. 



The phenylethyl alcohol which had previously been detected by us as 

 a constituent of champaca oil was also found present in it by Brooks. 



Champaca Oil from white flowers (from Michelia longifolia, Bl.), 



^ In the papers quoted above, Brooks 3 ) also refers to the oil of white champaca 



flowers. This oil is dark in colour, and has the following constants: d 0,897, 



ester v. 180,0, n D30O 1,4470. It contains linalool (identified by its b. p. and by 



oxidation into citral), methyleugenol (identified by oxidation into veratric 



x ) Comp. Knoevenagel, Berl. Berichte 37 (1904), 4041. 



2 ) Journ. Americ. chem. Soc. 33 (1911), 1763. 



3 ) Philippine Journ. of Sc. 6, A. (1911), 332; journ. Americ. chem. Soc. 33 (1911), 1463. 



