88 Report of Schimmel 3 Co. April 1913. 



the available supplies are exclusively in the hands of the exporters, and these supplies 

 cannot exceed from 300 to 400 kilos. As a result of the Balkan War the demand for 

 rose oil has been very sustained, and all the more recent sales in Bulgaria have been 

 made at prices varying from 2600 Fr. to 3400 Fr. per kilo. 



As regards the new crop, the general prospects are not very encouraging. 

 Almost everywhere, and especially in the low-lying gardens, the rose trees do not 

 look very hardy, and present a more or less enfeebled appearance. This is probably 

 due to mildew and other diseases from which they have been suffering for the past 

 three years, to the scanty and intermittent care they have lately received owing to the 

 war, and especially to the recent frosts. All this damage, however, may easily be 

 made good if the weather is favourable during the month of April and especially 

 during the distilling season. At present the weather remains chilly. It is still too 

 early to forecast the result of the next crop, but the output is expected to be not 

 less than a middling one, and no reduction in the price of rose oil is looked for, the 

 more so because there is no old stock left, and because the opening price of the 

 flowers of the new crop is already 30 p. c. above that of last season. 



Among the samples of rose oil which have been submitted to us for our opinion 

 in the course of the past six months several proved to be adulterated with spirit. We 

 need not refer in detail here to this form of adulteration, because it has already been 

 discussed repeatedly in our Reports. We wish, however, specially to mention in this 

 place an oil which was not only adulterated with spirit but also in another fashion, 

 namely with artificial ester. That the sample was adulterated was already evident from 

 its constants, which were in part wholly abnormal: d 30 o 0,8976, « D — 0°57', n D25 o 1,45842, 

 sol. p. +24°, acid v. 7,3, ester v. 172,1=60,2 p. c. ester calc. as geranyl acetate, 

 ester v. after acet. 271,3 = 93,7 p. c, calc. as total geraniol. 



Apart from the fact that in this sample the sp. gr., acid value and percentage of 

 total esters are much too high, the abnormal ester value is particularly noteworthy, 

 seeing that in commercial oils of good quality this value ranges from 7 to 16 p. c. 

 Our suspicion that an artificial ester had been added to the oil was confirmed by 

 further examination, which showed the corresponding acid to be probably phthalic 

 acid, as appears to be indicated among other reasons by the fact that when it was 

 melted with resorcinol and zinc chloride fluoresceine was generated. The acid was 

 probably present in the oil in the form of ethyl phthalate, but owing to lack of sufficient 

 experimental material it was impossible to decide this point. Judging from the ester 

 value the addition amounted to about 30 p. c. We were also able to detect about 

 6 p. c. of spirit in the oil. 



J. C. Umney 1 ) has utilised the colour test recommended by Dodge and Olcott for 

 the detection of gurjun balsam in order to detect the presence of the oil of gurjun 

 balsam in rose oil. To 5 drops of the rose oil under examination, Umney added 

 10 cc. of glacial acetic acid and 3 drops of pure nitric acid and shook the mixture 

 well. A reddish-violet colour developing in about 30 seconds indicates the presence 

 of gurjun balsam oil, and according to Umney this test makes it possible to detect 

 so small a proportion as 0,5 p. c. of the adulterant in rose oil. 



In our Report of April 1912, p. 108, we had called attention to the adulteration 

 of rose oil with gurjun balsam; an adulteration which had not previously been observed. 

 We gave exact chemical proof of the presence of gurjun oil by oxidising a strongly- 



*) Per/um. and Essent. Oil Record 3 (1912), 287, 291. 



