66 Report of Schimmel $ Co. April 1913. 



which had been secured by us, but in view of the change in the position of the 

 market to which we have referred above, we have been compelled to cancel this 

 reduction. 



Our exquisite geranium oil substitute has assisted large numbers of our customers 

 in tiding over the inordinately high oil-prices which prevailed during the winter, and 

 we believe we are justified in predicting a bright future for this preparation. 



Thanks to the manner in which the sale of synthetic esters is pushed by certain 

 chemical works, the use of such esters as adulterants of essential oils appears to be 

 constantly on the increase, especially in the case of oils in the evaluation of which 

 the ester-value plays no decisive part. In our last Report, p. 92, we called attention 

 to an adulteration of petitgrain oil with terpinyl acetate, and on the present occasion 

 we have to report on similar sophistications of other oils. In a (probably artificial) 

 oil of lemon (p. 60), we found glycerylacetate; in samples of rose oil (p. 83) and of 

 African geranium oil we detected phthalic ester. The last-named sample, like the 

 others, had been submitted to us for our opinion. Its constants were as follow: 

 d l5 o 0,9303, « D — 5°22', n D20O 1,47397, acid v. 4,3, ester v. 128,8 = 54,3 p. c. ester, calc. 

 for geranyl tiglinate, sap. v. 133,1, acid v. II 1 ) 34,8, ester v. after acet. 276,5 = 95,9 p. c. 

 calc. as total geraniol, sol. in 1,6 vols. a. m. of 70 p. c. alcohol. These analytical figures 

 pointed unquestionably to the fact that the oil was adulterated, especially because the 

 ester-value and the percentage of alcoholic constituents were much too high. Further 

 evidence of sophistication lay in the great difference between the sap. v. and the acid 

 v. II of the oil. In the case of a sample of pure African geranium oil which was 

 tested for purposes of comparison this difference was only 0,9; in the oil under 

 examination it was 98,3. From this it was evident that either a fatty oil or the ester 

 of a sparingly volatile acid had been added to the oil, and as the first-named addition 

 was excluded by the ready solubility of the sample, the second remained the only 

 possibility. Further examination revealed the adulterant as a phthalic ester; probably 

 ethyl phthalate, an easily obtainable compound, for when the acid v. of the acid which 

 had not passed over with steam was estimated, it was found to be identical with that 

 of phthalic acid. Recrystallised from water, this acid had m. p. 200 to 203°; it sublimed 

 with elimination of water in the long needles, m. p. 129°, which are characteristic of 

 phthalic anhydride; melted up with resorcinol and zinc chloride it afforded fluoresceine. 

 The proportion of added ethyl phthalate was estimated from the difference between 

 sap. v. and acid v. II to be about 20 p. c. 



On p. 480 of the issue of August 3 rd , 1912 of the Revue agricole & viticole de VAfrique 

 du Nord, a journal published in Algiers, Jolivet publishes an article on the cultivation 

 of the geranium plant in Algeria. We can only refer to the article here for the purpose 

 of recording its appearance, as we have already dealt at length with the cultivation 

 of geranium in previous Reports' 1 ). 



On the properties of Australian geranium oil, see p. 122. 



Ginger Oil. At last we are able to record a change for the better in the position 

 of this article, for, owing to satisfactory crops, all descriptions of ginger suitable for 

 distilling have receded in value. It has been possible to reduce the prices by about 



l ) On the method of estimation comp. Report October 1910, 61 . — 2 ) Report April 1907, 54; October 1910, 70. 



