Commercial and scientific notes on essential oils. 79 



sterilized 122 kilos of roots, collected near Grasse in March, arid extracted them 

 thoroughly with hot alcohol, to which some calcium carbonate had been added. The 

 product was extracted with hot, aqueous acetic ester and the resulting green extract 

 treated with hot water. The watery solution contained the glucoside and part of the 

 already free oil, which was separated with the aid of ether. When some powdered 

 violet root, which had previously been washed with alcohol and ether, was added to 

 the aqueous liquid, a slight alteration of the rotation and the presence of a small 

 amount of essential oil was to be noticed 1 ). 



Only a very few data are given about the oil itself. The yellow, aromatic product 

 was partly soluble in light petroleum. This component proved to be a cristalline 

 mass, which, after having been dissolved in an aqueous solution of sodium carbonate, 

 could be precipitated with hydrochloric acid. On treatment with ether, a cristalline 

 mass was then obtained which gave a green colour reaction with ferric chloride solution. 



From the part that did not dissolve in light petroleum, a small quantity of salicylic 

 acid was obtained after saponification with alcoholic potash lye. The authors take it 

 that methyl salicylate was probably present in the roots, as Desmouliere 2 ) arrived at 

 the same result, years ago, with Viola tricolor. 



Oil of Vitex trif olia. — On distilling the leaves and twigs of Vitex trifolia, L. 

 (Vitex ovafa, Mak. [?] [Thunb.]), a verbenacea grown in the Ogasawara Islands and 

 Kanagawa Prefecture (jap. hamago), Y. Shinosaki 3 ) obtained 0.11 to 0.28 per cent, of 

 an oil having a brown colour and a characteristic odour 4 ). Three samples of the oil 

 had the following characters : — d 15 o 0.8908 to 0.9141; « D20 o — 39°6' to — 47°20'; 

 n D20O 1.4707 to 1.5010; acid v. to 1.75; sap. v. 23.38 to 38.70; sap. v. after acet. 40.14 

 to 53.34. The chief constituents of the oil were ?,«-pinene, which gave no solid 

 nitroSochloride, camphene (together with pinene: — 55 per cent), terpinyl acetate 

 (10 per cent, b. p. 84 to 86° at 15 mm.; d 15 o 0.9629; n D20O 1.4670); a diterpene alcohol 

 C 20 H 32 O or C 20 H 34 O (20 per cent, b. p. 165 to 167° at 4 mm.; d 15 o 0.9760; « D20O — 46° 39'; 

 n D20O 1.5143; sap. v. after acet. 42.02). The oil was separated into its three chief con- 

 stituents by fractional distillation; the middle part might be suitable for perfumery 

 purposes, as it is mainly composed of terpinyl acetate. 



Oil of Water-hemlock. — A trial distillation of faded roots of water-hemlock 

 (Cicuta virosa, L.) gave us an opportunity of determining some properties of this oil, 

 which is but little known. It was yellow and had a faint odour, which it is difficult 

 to describe. A similarity with water-fennel and celery, noticed by others on a 

 previous occasion 5 ), could not be stated this time. The following constants were 

 determined : — d 15 o 0.8909, « D + 16°32', n D20O 1.48480, acid v. 3.7, ester v. 17.7, soluble 

 in about 4 volumes of 90 per cent, alcohol, but with turbidity which, on standing, 

 led to the separation of flakes (paraffin?). The yield amounted to 0.04 per cent. 



Wormwood Oil. — F. Rabak 6 ) publishes the following observations wade with 

 wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, L., under cultivation at the Arlington Experimental 

 Farm, Arlington, Virginia, for a period of years. During that time the plant was 



l ) These facts indicate the presence of a glucoside, it is true, but the authors themselves have to admit 

 that it has not been proved as yet. — *) Cf. Report April 1904, 88. — 3 ) Journ. chem.Ind., Japan 24 (1921), 

 191. Journ. Hoc. chem. Ind. 40 (1921), A. 411. — *) Years ago, a sample of the essential oil of Vitex trifolia, L. 

 has been distilled from a specimen growing in the Botanical Garden of Sumatra, which contained cineole. Comp. 

 Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, 2" d ed., vol. Ill, p. 409. — B ) Cf. Gildemeister and Hoffmann 

 The Volatile Oils, 2"* edition, vol. Ill, p. 326. — e ) Journ. industr. and engin. Chem. 13 (1921), 536. 



