- 46 - 



year's crop is said to amount to not less than iooooo bales in Hol- 

 land, London, and New York only, so that, including the new crop, 

 over 230000 bales are available. Even calculating upon 200000 bales 

 only, this quantity would be more than sufficient for the normal re- 

 quirements of one year. Hence, if the party interested in the rise 

 should be unable to drive the price upwards, the market during the 

 coming season will probably, and with good reason, be in favour of 

 the consumers. 



We reproduce this report under reserve, for pessimistic information 

 from Zanzibar dated at the end of July is also at hand, in which a 

 considerable shortage in the crop of 1909 — 19 10 is forecasted. 



According to a newspaper article, the intention exists of introducing 

 the cultivation of cloves on the palm island of Mafia, which belongs 

 to Germany and is situated south of Zanzibar 1 ). 



In the course of the period unter review the observation has been 

 made again in London and in Hamburg that not only wholesale dealings 

 in clove oil, but even quite small contracts, have been concluded at 

 prices at which it is impossible for the manufacturers to have made 

 any profit whatsoever. Both these centres appear to have made it 

 their business to ruin the trade in clove oil by senseless competition. 



Copaiba Balsam Oil, African. H. von Soden 2 ) has published 

 particulars of an investigation into the composition of an oil from 

 African balsam. By passing hydrochloric acid into the ethereal solution 

 he obtained from the oil (constants: d 0,920, a n-\- 16 50', ester 

 no. 5,6, ester no. after acetyl. 10) a hydrochloride, m. p. 116 to 119 

 ( a D — 3° in 10 per cent, benzene solution). The hydrocarbon regenerated 

 thereform had the following constants: b. p. 274,5 to 276 (743 mm.), 

 d 0,928, «b — 94 . These properties agree with those of 1-cadinene. 

 It was not possible to arrive at a conclusion as to the particular 

 sesquiterpene which occurs in the oil. Apparently, however, the con- 

 ditions are somewhat similar to those which prevail in West Indian 

 sandalwood oil, of which Deussen converted the dextrorotatory sesquiter- 

 pene into 1-cadinene by way of the hydrochloride 3 ). 



In our Report of October 1908 4 ) we gave the constants of an 

 African Copaiba balsam and of the essential oil prepared therefrom. 

 The oil (di 5 o 0,9215, «d -\- 22 26', acid no. 2,2, ester no. o) has 

 been more closely examined in our laboratories, but we have abstained 

 from publishing anything about it because we knew that it was the 

 intention of Dr. Deussen, of Leipzig, to investigate the separate con- 



x ) See Report November 1908. 46. 



2 ) Chem. Ztg. 33 (1909), 428. 



3 ) Arch, der Pharm. 238 (1900), 149. 



4 ) Report October 1908, 48. 



