- 76 - 



of the above-mentioned fraction with potassium permanganate. At a 

 later date a detailed report on pilea oil shall be issued. 



Pine needle Oils. Up to the present it has, unfortunately, not 

 yet been possible to meet definitely the scarcity of oil from pine 

 cones, as we have hitherto only received unimportant quantities of 

 the fresh distillate. The producing district in the West of Switzerland 

 has, according to our correspondents, suffered considerably from the 

 unfavourable weather conditions, so that this year's distillation -result 

 will probably only come to half the production of previous years. 

 Towards the end of the month we hope to receive further small 

 supplies. The other kinds, the oils from Abies alba, and Finns 

 montana, and also Siberian pine needle oil, were available in 

 abundant quantities, and especially the latter has become introduced 

 in the most diverse branches of industry, on account of its low price 

 and its exceptional usefulness. 



In continuing his work on the constituents of Siberian pine 

 needle oil 1 ), Schindelmeiser 2 ) has recently succeeded in demons- 

 trating definitely, in a fraction of the b. p. 175 to 182 , « D — I4°3i', 

 the presence of dipentene, (which at the time was not detected 

 with ceitainty) by means of the production of the dihydrochloride 

 and dihydrobromide (m. p. 49 and 64 respectively) and of the tetra- 

 bromide (m. p. 154 ; probably a printer's error, instead of 124 ?). 

 The constants of the terpene were: b. p. 176 to 178 ; d 0,847; «d±o; 

 n D 1,47312. The presence of d-phellandrene in this oil could 

 also be proved, inasmuch as from the fraction of the b. p. 169 to 

 I 7 2 ° { a D — I7°20 / ) containing dipentene, a crystalline nitrite of the 

 m. p. 106 to 10 7 was formed. Its rotation, in 4,34 per cent, chloro- 

 form solution, (d2oo 1,478) was [«] D — 46,16°. 



The total weight of the crude dipentene and phellandrene fractions 

 together equalled 5,4% of the oil. 



Oil of Pinus Sabiniana Douglas. The results of the examin- 

 ations of this oil mentioned in our last Reports 3 ) are confirmed 

 by a work by Frank Rabak 4 ) who, like ourselves, used as exude 

 material a balsam supplied by Green & Co., Oroville, Cal. The 

 alcoholic solution of the semi-solid, dirty brown balsam, was optically 

 inactive; it had as acid no. 127; ester no. 37; sap. no. 164. By 

 means of distillation with steam, 7,3% °f a colourless essential 

 oil with a pleasant odour like oranges were obtained from the 



*) Apoth. Ztg. 19 (1904), 815. Report April 1905, 65. 



2 ) Chem. Ztg. 31 (1907), 759. 



8 ) Report October 1906, 64; April 1907, 85. 



4 ) Pharm. Review 25 (1907), 212. 



