— 133 — 



to American oil owing to its lower price alone, if for no other reasons. 

 In respect of quality our German oil fulfills the most exacting require- 

 ments, and the employment of a more expensive quality is therefore 

 merely a luxury. Our plantations have stood the winter well and will no 

 doubt this year again produce sufficient oil for our requirements. 



We hear that there is some intention of prohibiting entirely the con- 

 sumption of absinth in France, and that a Bill to this effect is to be 

 introduced before long in the Chamber of Deputies. 



Xanthoxylum Oils. E. M. Holmes 1 ) states that under the name of 

 "Japanese pepper 1 ' a fruit has recently made its appearance upon the 

 English market which is distinctly different from the fruit of Xanthoxylum 

 piperitum, D. C, (usually known as Japanese pepper) and which no doubt 

 really belongs to the species X alatum, Rox. 2 ). According to an article by 

 Umney which constitutes an amplification of the note by Holmes, the oil 

 distilled from the above-named fruit was pale yellow in colour and had an 

 odour resembling a mixture of lime and nutmeg; d 0,889, « D — 23°. After 

 standing for a few days crystals of stearoptene separated in the form of 

 long, white needles, m. p. 80°; for the rest the oil was found to consist 

 chiefly of terpenes, boiling between 170 and 200°. Umney believes the 

 oil to be identical with one previously examined by J. Stenhouse 3 ). It is 

 true that the latter stated that his oil was obtained from the fruit of 

 Xanthoxylum piperitum, but according to Holmes, Stenhouse erroneously 

 referred to the fruit from which his oil was prepared as Xanthoxylum 

 piperitum. In reality it was that of X. alatum, a circumstance to which 

 Hanbury had already previously drawn attention. 



We may add to the above that in our Report of October 1910, 147, 

 we gave detailed particulars of an oil distilled by us from the fruit of 

 Xanthoxylum alatum, Roxb., a fact which has been completely overlooked 

 both by Holmes and by Umney. In the present Report (see next page) we 

 refer to a further examination of our oil by Semmler and Schossberger, 

 from which it appears that the crystals which are separated from the oil 

 (the "xanthoxyline" of Stenhouse) agree with phloracetophenone dimethyl- 

 ether, while the terpenes ("xanthoxylene") are possibly identical with 

 Z-sabinene. It is probable that Holmes and Umney are correct in their 

 assumption that the parent-plant of the oil examined by Stenhouse was 

 X. alatum and X. piperitum, inasmuch as the constituents of the oil found 

 by Stenhouse clearly point to X. alatum. Moreover, citral, which is a 

 Characteristic constituent of the oil of X piperitum, and the presence of 

 which is expressed in the odour of that oil, was absent, both from the 

 oil obtained by us and from that distilled by Umney. 



*) Perfum. and Essent. Oil Record 3 (1912), 37. 



2 ) These fruits are known in Japan as "Fuyu Sansho", *. e. "Winter Sansho", the desig- 

 nation "Sansho" being applied exclusively to the fruit of X. piperitum. 



*) Pharmaceutical Journ. I. 17 (1357), 19; Liebigs Annalen 104 (1857), 236. 



