NOTES ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 103 



Notes on Scientific Research in the Domain of the 

 Terpenes and Essential oils. 



General. 



In a paper on the Oils, Fats and Waxes in Latin America, 0. Wilson 1 ) gives 

 a description of the principal essential oils manufactured in these countries. For the 

 most part thuy are the products of the tropical regions of northern South America, 

 Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies, the value of which products is but 

 small compared with the resources. In Mexico, linaloe oil is distilled from the wood 

 and also the seeds of various species of Bursera, in French Guiana the Cayenne 

 linaloe oil from "bois de rose femelle", a strong-smelling wood said to derive from 

 Ocotea caudata. Mez., a lauracea, and likewise the so-called Guiana sandalwood oil 

 from wood originating apparently also from different lauraceas 2 ). A similar oil, the 

 so-called West Indian sandalwood oil, derived from the rutacea Amyris balsamifera, L. 3 ), 

 has been shipped to Europe for over a century. It has been used as adulterant of, 

 and substitute for, genuine sandalwood oil. The West Indies furnish furthermore 

 orange oil (Jamaica), pressed and distilled oil of limes (Montserrat, Jamaica, Dominica), 

 bay oil (Jamaica, St. Thomas, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Barbados, and Dominica), and 

 pimento oil (Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad, San Domingo, Antigua, Leeward and Windward 

 Islands, and Jamaica). The evergreen pimento tree, Pimento, officinalis. Lindl., also 

 occurs in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. Other possibilities of Jamaica, not yet 

 developed, include vetiver and camphor. In Paraguay, the great number of bitter 

 orange trees are made use of for the preparation of bitter orange oil and, to a limited 

 extent, also of neroli oil. Another tree, the zygophyllacea Bulnesia Sarmienti, Lor., 

 growing in Paraguay and Argentina, yields the important guniac wood oil, called 

 erroneously also "champaca" oil 4 ). 



Other essential oils and materials from which they can be distilled cover a wide 

 range throughout the tropical forests of the Amazon and Orinoco Valleys and French 

 Guiana. In Brazil, the leaves of a plant called "false jaborandi", Arthante geniculata. 

 Miq. fPiperaceceJ, yield a light-greenish oil of spicy mint-like odour and pungent burning 

 taste; the leaves of Citrosma oligandra, Jul. (Monimiacece) , called in Brazil " catingueira" , 

 furnish an oil with a greenish fluorescence and an odour resembling bergamot. The 

 leaves of the wild lemon, Citrosma cujabana, Mart. (Monimiacece) , contain an oil with 

 an odour of bergamot and lemon, and those of the wild coffee tree, Citrosma Apiosyce. 

 Mart., an oil with a lemon-like odour. From the bark of Dicypellium caryophyllatum. 

 Nees, "Cassia caryophyllata" , an oil is obtained containing eugenol and having a clove- 

 like odour. In Bolivia, a grass grows abundantly which is closely related to lemon- 



*) Chem. and met. Eng. 24 (1921), 1101. — Bull, of the Pan-Amer. Union, October 1921, 334, where the 

 same article is published with two additional illustrations (evidently drawings) of the Paraguay petitgrain oil 

 industry which are omitted in the Chem. & met. Eng. — 2 ) Cf. Report October 1911, 80. — 3 ) Cf. Gildemeister 

 and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, 2 nd ed., vol. Ill, p. 114. — *) Genuine champaca oil has entirely different 

 qualities and originates from Michel ia Champaca, L. 



