Commercial notes and scientific information. 67 



10 p. c, but as there is a very sustained demand for our distillate, no further decline 

 in our quotations is probable. The principal raw material for distilling has been 

 African ginger, which has gradually fallen in price from about 80 c4i at the beginning 

 to 48 oM at the end of the year. 



Several years ago H. von Soden and W. Rojahn J ) succeeded in isolating from the 

 first runnings of ginger oil an aldehyde which they were unable to identify more closely, 

 the available quantity being too small. It is possible that this body may be identical 

 with an aldehyde which has been obtained by F. D. Dodge 2 ), to the extent of from 

 2 to 5 p. c, from the low-boiling fractions of Jamaica ginger oil by shaking out with 

 neutralised 15 p. c. bisulphite liquor. After shaking out, Dodge allowed the mass to 

 stand for a few days at a low temperature. The aldehyde recovered by steam-distillation 

 from the bisulphite-compound after treatment with the calculated quantity of sodium 

 bicarbonate constituted a colourless, very mobile liquid, possessing a characteristic 

 odour of oranges or of decylaldehyde: di 60 0,828, « D inactive. It is very sensitive 

 towards alkalies, hence the regeneration from the sulphite-compound is not always 

 successful. The semicarbazone melts at 98° (from methyl alcohol). The oxime was 

 prepared by Mannich's method 3 ) and had m. p. 63° (from dilute alcohol). The nitrile 

 was prepared from the oxime by boiling with acetic anhydride. Its odour reminds of 

 oil of rue. The acid which was yielded by the nitrile had m. p. 5°, and gave acid 

 value 313,9 (calc for CioH 2 o0 2 325,3; for CnH 22 O 2 301). Dodge supposes the aldehyde 

 to be identical with the n-decylic aldehyde of oils of orange, cassie, orris, and coriander. 



When the aldehyde is kept for a prolonged period molecular transpositions would 

 appear to take place in it. For example, one portion of it, after having been kept for 

 over nine years in a well-stoppered bottle, failed to react, at the end of that time, 

 either with bisulphite or with semicarbazide. Nor was the conversion-product (which 

 possessed a well-defined geraniol odour), attacked by chromic acid solution. 



Gingergrass Oil. Business in this article has continued to drag, but the prices have 

 remained unchanged because the supplies brought to market have not been inordinately 

 heavy. Nowadays this oil by no means plays the important part it used to do. 



Guaiac wood Oil. The stocks are again rapidly approaching depletion, and higher 

 prices are being asked for the wood, for which reason we regard an improvement in 

 the value of the oil in the course of a few months as probable. For the moment we 

 need make no change in the quotations of our oil, which is always in fresh condition. 



Gurjun balsam Oil. Of the botanical origin of gurjun balsam it is known that 

 the drug is derived from several species of Dipterocarpus (in particular from D. turbinatus. 

 Gaertn. fil., D. incanus, Roxb. and D. alatus, Roxb. ; N. O. Dipterocarpacect), but up to 

 the present nothing has become known of the balsams produced by these different 

 species; hence we are in complete ignorance whether, and if so in what respect, they 

 differ from each other. On this account it afforded us great satisfaction to be given 

 an opportunity recently of making the acquaintance of gurjun balsams derived from 

 authentically determined species of Dipterocarpus. The occasion was the publication 

 of an official report by R. S. Pearson 4 ) on Indian Forest products, in which in the 



*) Pharm. Ztg. 45 (1900), 414. — 2 ) 8th International Congress of Applied Chemistry, Washington and 

 New York, 1912. Vol. VI, 77. — 3 ) Berl. Bericlde 43 (1910), 195. — 4 ) Commercial Guide to the forest economic 

 products of India. Calcutta 1912, p. 140. 



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