W - 105 — 



In our last Report 1 ) we stated that A. W. Mann, of London, as well as 

 ourselves had met with sparingly-soluble star-anise oils. Mann, in the 

 case of the oils examined by him, suspected adulteration with cedarwood 

 oil, whereas in our samples we were able to detect the presence of fatty 

 oil. Parry 2 ) appears to have examined oils of a similar character, for he 

 mentions two samples of which the sp. gr., the co-efficient of refraction 

 and the congealing point were too low and the solubility insufficient. 

 Another sample which deviated still more from the normal (the cong. pt., 

 for instance, being only 7°). was found upon closer examination to be 

 adulterated with about 40 p. c. of mineral oil. 



Tansy Oil. This article has undergone several advances in price 

 during the last few months, because the output has been less than in 

 1911, and because this reduction in the supply was accompanied by an 

 exceptionally brisk demand. According to information collected by our 

 New York branch the total area under tansy in the State of Michigan is 

 131 acres, while in 1911 it was 145 and in 1910 as much as 182 acres. 

 And whereas at the time of distilling in 1911 there was still on hand a 

 stock of nearly 1300 lbs. of the previous year's oil, the balance now 

 available from last year only amounts to about 300 lbs. In the circum- 

 stances there is every reason for describing the position of tansy oil as 

 very firm. 



Oil of Taxodium distichurn. As we stated in our October Report 

 of 1911, p. 87, A. F. Odell 3 ) has discovered in the oil from the wood of 

 Southern Cypress (Taxodium distichurn, Rich.), a North American conifer, 

 an aldehyde to which at the time he gave the name of cypral. With the 

 object of obtaining a larger quantity of this aldehyde, Odell 4 ) has recently 

 prepared the oil from the cones of the tree in question, but without result, 

 the oil proving to be free from aldehyde. The cones, distilled in September, 

 yielded 1 p.c. yellowish green oil with an odour of pinene; the cones which 

 had been collected later in the year yielded 1,5 to 2 p.c. oil of a darker 

 colour and an odour more resembling that of lemons, d 0,86 and 0,850; 

 « D -f-18,0 and +35,5°, alcohol-content 2,5 p. c. The oil contained about 

 85 p.c. d-a-pinene (b. p. 156 to 157°* d^ 0,8616; [« D ] + 30,8°; n D20O 1,4655) 

 and 5 p.c. d-limonene (b. p. 175 to 180°; d^ 0,8567; [«] D20 o + 98,3 ° ; n D20O 

 1,4742; m. p. of the tetrabromide 104°, of the nitrosochloride 105°), as well 

 as 2 p. c. of a dextrorotatory fraction which probably contains a pseudo 

 terpene alcohol, as was apparent from the formation of a copious, brown, 

 flocculent mass upon the addition of Beckmann's mixture. The distillate also 



*) Report April 1912, 120. Owing to a printers' error we refer here (line 12 from the top 

 of the page), to "readily-soluble" star-anise oils.'^tfis' should of course be "sparingly-soluble". 



2 ) Chemist and Druggist 81 (1912), 372. '/ \ ' \ ' 



3 ) Journ. Americ. Chem. Soc. 33 (1911), 75b. -; 3 

 *) Ibidem 31 (1912), 824. 



