Commercial and scientific notes on essential oils. 31 



Orris Root Oil. — Recent reports from the orris root market of Florence indicate 

 that all business transactions have come to a complete standstill, and that consequently 

 the prices have been yielding considerably. As there is for the present little chance 

 of a revival in the trade, we may look forward to further price reduction, unless 

 prevented by the change in the Italian valuta. 



We have fully taken up again the distillation of orris root oil, and the demand for 

 our concrete orris root oil as well as for the liquid tenfold quality, has proved that 

 the two kinds are equally highly esteemed in our country and abroad, and that their 

 want has seriously been felt everywhere during the war. 



Pagoda Grain Oil. — Under the name of "Essence de Ble des Pagodes" Roure- 

 Bertrand Fils 1 ) received from Annam a sample of an essential oil, the botanical source 

 of which has not yet been identified. The oil which had a sharp burning taste, some- 

 what like orange-peels, and reminded in its smell first of palma rosa or ginger grass 

 oil, and then distinctly of caraway oil, had the following constants: — d 20 o 0.9182; 

 rt Diso^58°40'; n D20 o 1.4870; soluble in 1 vol. and more of 80 per cent, alcohol and in 

 2 to 4 vol. of 75 per cent, alcohol, insoluble in 70 percent, alcohol: — acid v. 1.87; 

 ester v. 9.33; sap. v. 11.20; ester v. after acetylation 130.67; total alcohol (calculated 

 as CioHisO) 39.83 per cent., free alcohol 37.27 per cent. Nitric acid attacked the oil 

 slowly in the cold; sulphuric acid decomposed it and coloured it brown. 



30 g. of the oil distilled at 735 mm. gave the following fractions: — (1) 174 to 179°, 

 6g.; dJgO.8554; « D15 o + 95° 22'; (2) 184 to 202°, 5g.; dg§0.8809; « D150 85°2 f ; (3) 202 

 to 212°, 3 g.; dgO.8809; « D15O -{-64 o 40'; (4) 212 to 222°, 10 g.; d||0.9479; a D15O 45°20'; 

 (5) 222 to 226°, 3 g.; d|g 0.9524; « D15O 31°20'; residue 3 g. Smell and physical con- 

 stants of the first two fractions suggested cMimonene ; the fourth fraction very probably 

 ^contained some geraniol. Coumarine aldehyde seemed also to be present. 



Palm Kernel Oil, Essential. — We commented in our Report of 1918, on page 38, 

 on an essential palm kernel oil. As regards ketones we could only establish at tha time 

 the presence of methyl-JV-nonylketone. From the constituents of lower boiling points we 

 could not obtain any semicarbazone of definite melting point, and we could only assume 

 that we were dealing with a mixture of methylamyl ketone and methylheptyl ketone. 



A further examination has confirmed this assumption. In the fractionated distil- 

 lation of the fatty acids of palm kernels we obtained a first portion which, separated 

 from the acid constituents by means of soda, smelled strongly of the lower methyl 

 ketones. From this we isolated the following fractions (4 mm.): — (1) 30 to 45° 1 g.; 

 (2) 45 to 55° 1 g.; (3) 55 to 60° 10 g. ; (4) 60 to 87° 28 g. 



Fraction 1 had indeed the characteristic smell of methylamylketone, but the quan- 

 tity was too small to obtain a semicarbazone of a well-defined melting point. From 

 the first portions of fraction 3 we obtained a ketone (6 g.) distilling between 56 and 

 57,5° (4 mm.) 1 g. of this was mixed with semicarbazide hydrochloride; after recrystalli- 

 saticn from alcohol it melted between 118 and 119°. The semicarbazone of methyl- 

 ;/-heptylketone from clove oil melted at the same temperature, likewise did a mixture 

 of the two semicarbazones. 



Patchouli Oil. — Several larger consignments of patchouli leaves have been 

 worked up within the last months in our factories so that we are again in a position 



Roure-Bertrand Fils, April 1920, 32. 



