— 132 — 



New Essential Oils. 



Lebanon Cedar Oil. We have recently distilled a small quantity 

 of genuine Lebanon cedar wood, and we are thus in a position to 

 give some particulars of a really authentic oil from Cedrus Libani Barr. 

 {Pinus Cedrus L.; Abies Cedrus Poir.; Larix Cedrus Mill.). At the same 

 time we wish to place it on record that the particulars concerning Lebanon 

 cedar oil which are to be found in our Report for April 1892, 55, 

 should be deleted as being inaccurate, since the distillate there des- 

 cribed, as was shown by subsequent examination of the wood then 

 worked up, was derived from a species of Juniperus, in other words, 

 was not Lebanon-cedar oil at all. The authentic wood yielded about 

 3,5 °/ of a lemon-yellow oil of a pleasant balsamic odour, reminding 

 at the same time of methylheptenone and of thujone. This oil pos- 

 sessed the following constants: di 5 o 0,9427, ctj)^-8o° 20', n r>20° i j5 I2 54> 

 acid no. 0,5, ester no. 3,0 ester no. after acetylisation 19,8, soluble in 

 5 to 6 vols of 95 per cent, alcohol. It boils chiefly between 270 

 and 290 , the fractions passing over in an ordinary fractionating flask 

 at 754 mm. being as follow: — 



between 270 and 275 3O°/ 



275 „ 280 40% 



280 „ 285 14% 



285 „ 290 6% 

 Residue io°/ . 

 The chemical examination of the oil has already been taken in 

 hand by another investigator. 



Ifi- Ifi- Nuts. We desire to amplify the statements made in 

 our last November Report 1 ) with regard to the parent plant of ifi-ifi 

 nuts by stating that Thiele, in his pamphlet Uber wirtschaftliche 

 Verwertung ethnologischer Forschungen 2 ) designates this plant as being 

 of the N. O. Leguminosse and gives it the name of Inocarpus edulis Forst. 

 (Bocoa edulis) while afterwards, in the Chemiker Zeitung he cited the 

 parent plant as one of the Rosacese, viz., Parinarium laurinum (author?). 

 Our previous communication was based upon the last statement. We 

 incidentally learn from Samoa that only Inocarpus can be regarded as 

 the source of ifi-ifi nuts. 



At the same time we were informed that the flowers of this tree 

 possess an exquisite odour, but that attempts which had been made 

 locally to obtain an essential oil from them had been without result. 



*) Report November 1908, 136. 



2 ) Tubingen 1906, p. 37. 



3 ) Chem. Ztg. 31 (1907), 629. 



