22 



Commercial Notes and Scientific Information 

 on Essential Oils. 



Almond Oil, Bitter. The malpractices of which complaint has so 

 often been made already continue to prevail in the trade in essential oil 

 of bitter almonds. Adulteration with synthetic oil still remains a matter 

 of daily occurrence, and we regret to say that the warnings which we 

 have sounded so often and so emphatically in our Reports have so far 

 brought very little improvement indeed. In the department of bitter almond 

 oil free from hydrocyanic acid in particular, artificial oil is used to a 

 truly incredible extent by certain firms, whenever they have come to the 

 end of their power of competing fairly. Bitter almond oil is an article 

 of confidence which should be bought by the consumers only from sources 

 where quality is the paramount consideration, and from firms who are 

 themselves manufacturers of the article, for only such are in a position 

 to give a full guarantee for the goods they supply. 



Some time ago we mentioned a paper by V. K. Krieble 1 ) on amygdalin. 

 Since that time the author has continued his investigations 2 ) and has 

 observed that the slightest traces of hydroxyl ions racemise the amygdalin, 

 and that the cyanide radical is necessary to effect this change. It was 

 discovered that racemic amygdalin consists of 56,25 p. c. d- and 43,75 p. c. 

 Z-amygdalin. The circumstance that the racemic mixture, after being dried 

 on the water-bath, shows increased rotation is due to the action of a small 

 quantity of hydroxyl ions. These hydroxyl ions are generated by the hydro- 

 lysis of the barium salt of an as yet unknown acid which is always 

 associated with amygdalin in minute quantities. 



The author finally succeeded in resolving racemic amygdalin into its 

 optically active constituents. In the course of hydrolysis with moderately 

 concentrated sulphuric acid, ^-amygdalin is broken up into glucose and 

 d-mandelonitrile. With hydrochloric acid it affords glucose and d-mandelic 

 acid, d- Amygdalin is split up by emulsin into benzaldehyde, glucose, 

 and hydrocyanic acid. It had already been observed previously 3 ) that 

 Z-amygdalin behaves similarly. 



Almond Oil, Pressed. See Chemical Preparations and Drugs, p. 117. 



Ambrette Seed Oil. As our cheap supplies of ambrette seed are 

 used up, we have found it necessary to raise the prices of both our 

 qualities of ambrette seed oil Jo 1 , a: not inconsiderable extent. For the 

 moment suitable distilling material is conly obtainable at very high prices 



x ) Journ. chem. Soc. 95 (1909), 1437; Report April 1910, 18. 



2 ) Journ. Americ. chem. Soc. 34 (1912), 716. 



3 ) Comp. Report October 1909, 23. 



