f — 127 — 



Thymol. The prices of thymol have at length improved a little, and 

 have acquired a reasonable relation to the cost-price of the raw material 

 (ajowan seed), of which the quotation this year is about 11/-. Since the 

 Hamburg firm which was chiefly responsible for the demoralisation of the 

 thymol trade in recent years has abandoned the manufacture, business in 

 this important preparation has again assumed a more pleasant aspect. We 

 have long foreseen the commencement of this reversal in the thymol market 

 and, as is well known, we have never taken any part in the measureless 

 price-cutting which unfortunately has been a feature of the article in the 

 last few years. 



Tolu Balsam is very scarce. It would appear as if the upward 

 movement in prices which set in in this article a few months ago has not 

 yet attained its limit. Our purified quality especially has been in great 

 request on the part of the perfumers. 



Vanillin. The effect of the action of light upon vanillin in benzene, 

 toluene and other solvents has been investigated by E. Puxeddu 1 ) In 

 every instance the splitting-off of 2 hydrogen atoms from 2 molecules of 

 vanillin resulted in the production of dehydrovanillin (m. p. 305°), together 

 with vanillin alcohol. The methyl or ethyl ethers of vanillin behave very 

 differently; here there results an acid, 2 molecules of the ether first 

 condensing and the product of condensation reacting with fresh ether. It has 

 been found impossible to isolate the intermediate bodies from the reaction- 

 mixture; nothing but the acid was obtained in any of the experiments. 



In the same manner methylvanillin yielded methylvanillic acid (m. p. 

 177°) and ethyl vanillin, ethyl vanillic acid (m. p. 195 to 196°). 



x ) Atti R. Accad. dei Lincei, Roma (5), 20 (1911), II. 717. Quoted from Chem. Zentralbl. 

 1912, I. 724. 



