— 120 — 



E. W. Mann 1 ) attributes the imperfect solubility of certain star anise 

 oils in 90°/o alcohol to some form of sophistication the true nature of 

 which has been unable to determine; but which he surmises to have its 

 source in cedar wood oil, because the distillation residues of the samples 

 examined by him possessed a well-marked woody flavour not dissimilar to 

 that of cedar wood oil, which was not perceptible in the residue of an oil of 

 normal solubility. In our opinion any addition of this caracter can only have 

 been a slight one, because cedar wood oil is somewhat strongly laevorotatory, 

 and Mann's samples only showed rotations ranging from ±0° to a maximum 

 of — 0° 12'. A sophistication of the kind suggested appears to us to be all 

 the more doubtful, because we ourselves some years ago, and again 

 recently, have observed readily-soluble star anise oils, but these were 

 found to be adulterated with fatty oil, which was isolated by driving off the 

 volatile fractions with steam, and was clearly identified by its insolubility 

 in 95°/o alcohol, its high saponification value and the melting-point of 

 the isolated fatty acids. The subjoined table shows the characteristics 

 of our oils, both before and after rectification by steam, and of the 

 distillation residues: — 





d2oo 



a 



Sol. pt. 



Sol. in 

 90°/o alcohol 



Sap. v. 



m. p. of the 

 fatty acids 



Original Oils 



1 1) 0,9807 



— 0°15' 



+ 15,8° 



Both insol. 

 in 10 vols. 



— 



— 



|2) 0,9800 



— 0° 9' 



+ 15,5° 



— 



— 



The same 



ll) 0,9805 



— 0°15' 



+ 16,1° 



in 2 vols. a. m. 



— 



— 



rectified 1 



2) 0,9816 



— 0°11' 



+ 16° 



in 3 vols. a. m. 



— 



— 



Dist. residue 



111) - 



— 



— 



Both insol. 



in 10 vols. 



95°/o alcohol 



140,1 



29 to 30° 



2) - 



— 



— 



148,0 



39° 



Tansy Oil has also advanced in price. It is probable that there will 

 be a further rise in the quotations, as there is only a little oil left over 

 from the last crop. 



Oil of Thuja plicata. From the leaves and branches of the Wash- 

 ington cedar (Thuja plicata, Lamb.), R. E. Rose and C. Livingstone 2 ) have 

 obtained by distillation l°/o of a pale yellow oil of the following character! j 

 d 20 o 0,913, [«] D 2oo — 4,77°, n D20 o 1,4552, acid v. 0,518, ester v. 2,28, ester v. 

 after acet. 8,8. The oil was soluble in any proportion in 70°/o alcohol; 

 85°/o of the oil distilled between 100 and 110° (40 mm.) and consisted of 



*) Perfum. and Essent. Oil Record 2 (1911), 273. 

 2 ) Journ. Americ. chem. Soc. 34 (1912), 201. 



