Commercial and scientific notes on essential oils. 71 



/-borneol, linalool, and terpinenol-4; amyl alcohol, amyl carbinols, /3 t /-hexenol (?), 

 ^-pinene, ^>-cymene, geraniol, and caryophyllene are likewise present. Hitherto, the 

 following constituents of Spanish thyme oil (however, of different botanical origin) 

 had been found: — «-pinene, ^>-cymene, borneol, and linalool. 



From the dry herb of Thymus vulgaris, L., collected* in July near Terracina, pro- 

 vince of Rome, P. Leone and E. Angelescu 1 ) obtained by steam-distillation 1.06 per cent. 

 of a dark red oil with a strong aromatic odour and the following constants: — 

 d^ 0.9250, « 22 o — 2.40° (taken in white electric light), n D22 o 1.49646, a. v. 3.5, sap. v. 

 14.9; ester v. 11.4, corresponding to 4 per cent, linalyl acetate. Steam-distillation 

 being repeated, the constants of the lemon-yellow oil were: — d^- 0.9194, [a] D28 o — 3.57°, 

 n D2ri0 1.49505. 



The phenol {thymol, m. p. of the nitroso derivative 141 to 142°) was removed by 

 shaking with 5 per cent, caustic soda solution. Thymol estimated, 38 per cent, according 

 to the iodine method of Kremers and Schreiner. The non-phenolic part of the oil 

 showed, after acetylation, the sap. v. 112, corresponding to 30.8, and 14.1 per cent, 

 when calculated on the entire oil. After repeated fractional distillation under ordinary 

 pressure the following fractions were obtained:— 1. up to 165° (1.3 per cent); 2. 165 to 

 175° (231 per cent); 3. 175 to 185° (30.8 percent); 4. 185 to 195° (6.5 percent); 5. 195 to 

 205° (5.5 percent); 6. 205 to 225° (4.8 percent); 7. 225 to 235° (10.6 percent). 

 After boiling fractions 2 and 3 for five hours with sodium, the authors succeeded in 

 obtaining 13 per cent, (calculated on the entire oil) of a fraction boiling at 171 to 176° 

 which consisted nearly entirely of cymene (hydroxyisopropylbenzoic acid, m. p. 156 to 

 157°). The free alcohol seemed to be a mixture of borneol and linalool, which the 

 authors, however, were unable to identify. 



From a drug which in its morphological and anatomic characters coincided 

 completely with Thymus vulgaris. L. R. Kofler 2 ) obtained an oil which differed largely 

 from thyme oil owing to a content of cineole and containing but very little, if any, of 

 thymol. The author takes this fact for a further proof for the extraordinary variability 

 of the species of the genus Thymus also in their chemical behaviour 3 ). 



Turpentine Oil. — There are in the main three species of Pinus used in the 

 United States for the production of turpentine; viz., Pinus palustris, Mill., which 

 supplies the largest quantity by far, Pinus heterophylla (Ell.), Sudw., and Pinus echinata, 

 Mill. The Bulletin No. 898 (1920) of the U. S. Dep. of Agriculture 4 ), which contains much 

 useful information on the turpentine industry of country, names in addition to Pinus 

 palustris and Pinus earibwa (heterophylla) also Pinus ponderosa, Dougl., (Western yellow 

 pine) 5 ) as being tapped for turpentine. According to this bulletin, about 75 per cent of 

 the world's supply of turpentine is produced in the United States, the relative production 

 in the various States being about as follows: — Florida, 37 per cent; Georgia 19 per cent.; 

 Louisiana, 15 per cent.; Alabama, 12 per cent.; Mississippi, 9 per cent; Texas, 7 per cent; 

 North and South Carolina, less than 1 per cent. Formerly North Carolina produced the 

 bulk of the world's supply of turpentine, but now its pine forests are almost exhausted. 



x ) Gazz. ehim. ital. 51 (1921), II. 391. — *) Pharm. Monatsh. 1921, N° 3. Ace. to Pharm. Ztg. 66 (1921), 484. 

 — a ) Dorronsoro found likewise in Spanish thyme oils originating from Th. Mastichina, L. and Th. cephalotus, L. up 

 to 60 per cent, of cineole by the resorcinol method. Compare also p. 65 of the present Report. — 4 ) Journ. 

 toe. diem. Tad. 40 (1921), R. 165. — B ) Comp. also Report April 1913, 101. According to Engelmann, a botanist 

 who died in St. Louis (Missouri) in 1884, Pinus ponderosa is the most widely spread pine of the West in 

 California and Oregon, thriving on low and high mountains, even also in the plain, on sandy-gravelly soil. 

 Beissner, Handhud*. der Nadelholzkunde, 2 nd edition, p. 387. 



