— 98 — 



the next few months, and we therefore advise those of our customers 

 who desire to take advantage of our present selling-prices, which are 

 based upon our previous purchases of raw material, to lay in their supplies 

 in good time. 



Parsley Oil from seed. Raw material suitable for distillation has 

 been very hard to find as, owing to the severe drought, but little seed 

 had been gathered last year. When suddenly an animated demand for 

 parsley oil arose from France the prices advanced considerably, but owing 

 to the small stocks available only a small part of this demand could be 

 satisfied. 



Oil of Parthenium argentatum. Parthenium argentatum, Gray (N. O. 

 Composite), a native of Mexico, is an interesting plant, for, as we learn 

 from a paper by P. Alexander 1 ), it yields (calculation based upon dry 

 substance), from about 8 to 10% of rubber-material (the Guayule-rubber 

 of commerce), whereas the rubber- content of Hevea brasiliensis, the parent- 

 plant of the Para rubber, can only amount to a few °/oo of its total weight. 

 The comparatively high rubber-content of Parthenium argentatum is explained 

 by the fact that, as is the case in all rubber-yielding plants, the cells con- 

 taining the milky juice occur exclusively within the tissues of the bark. 

 In a dwarf-shrub, such as Parthenium argentatum, this tissue constitutes a 

 considerable proportion of the entire plant, whereas in a giant tree such 

 as Hevea it only amounts to a fraction of the whole weight. 



In addition to rubber the plant, calculation based upon dry material, 

 contains about 0,5% essential oil. 



For the purpose of preparing this oil material grown in Mexico was 

 used which had probably been collected and dried quite shortly before 

 shipping. It yielded about 0,015% of a greenish-yellow, faintly laevo- 

 rotatory oil 2 ), (di 5 o 0,8861), consisting entirely of hydrocarbons. Under 

 fractional distillation at 17 mm. 30% passed over between 50 and 60°; 

 20,3% between 60 and 80°, and 24,8% between 120 and 160°; the residue 

 amounting to 5,5%. The oil contained Z-«-pinene (m. p. of the nitroso- 

 chloride 100 to 102°; m. p. of the nitrolbenzylamine 122°) and a constituent 

 with a pepper-like odour, the latter being the carrier of the odoriferous 

 substance of the oil: b. p. 130 to 140° (17 mm.), di 5 o 0,9349, [«] D16 o — 21°24', 

 flDieo 1)496. Alexander surmises this body to be a sesquiterpene, but he 

 was unable to identify it with any of the known sesquiterpenes. 



Another oil, distilled from material which had been in warehouse fy 

 some considerable time, proved to be rich in oxygen and, when distilled, 

 left a residue of about 50% resin. 



• 



*) Berl. Berichte 44 (1911), 2320. 



2 ) The scanty oil-yield is due to the fact that no suitable distilling-plant for large-scale 

 work was available. 



