Notes on scientific research. 107 



can be renewed within a short time. The only question is whether the cutters are 

 willing to suffer a reduction of their wages as long as the victuals remain so dear in 

 Spain. In many cases, rosemary oil has been sold to foreign countries with loss or 

 at least without profit merely with the object to secure means for distilling thyme oil, 

 the yield of which was likewise very low as compared with former years. 



France and equally England, it is true, have purchased a good quantity of oil 

 rich in thymol, since both countries make use of thymene (? a mistake in lieu of 

 thymol). The U. S. are and were buyers of Corydothymus oil sampled to you recently. 

 Much of this oil is also shipped to Grasse. In the preceding years, the bulk of the 

 oil from Thymus vulgaris in Spain has been worked up- for thymol production. 



As to the result of the yield of spike oil, nothing definite can be said as yet. 

 High-priced stocks from 1920 still exist. The 1921 crop will most certainly be but 

 one-fourth of the 1920 one, and the 1921 production is most probably to be limited 

 by the owners of old stocks with the view to justify the high price of the old crop 

 as soon as a lively demand appears. 



As per a report of the Administration of Mysore 1 ) for the year ending June 30, 1920, a 

 number of satisfactory essential oils are distilled there. Important results were obtained in 

 the distillation of cardamoms. Nearly two tons of patchouli leaves were distilled, and the 

 oil was used for perfumery purposes. Qualitative experiments were done in the distillation 

 of rosha grass, vetiver, lemongrass, citronella grass, Kasturi arsina*) f and ajowan seeds. 



J. A. Hugues 3 ) gives a description of an apparatus serving for extracting the 

 odorous principle with volatile solvents from plants, roots, leaves, flowers, even from 

 gums (!) and resins. Two endless movable chains circulate within the extraction pan 

 and carry a series of boxes which travel continuously from top to bottom and vice 

 versa, as in a dredging machine. The extractor contains a sufficient quantity of liquid, 

 such as light petroleum, carbon disulphide, or ethyl chloride, so that the lowest box 

 at a time is completely submersed in the solvent. The bottom, lid, and the side walls 

 of each box are perforated. The boxes are then filled with the drugs for extraction 

 and worked continually through the solvent until the latter is saturated with the perfume. 

 The major part of the solvent is then drawn off by means of a pipe at the bottom of 

 the still, and by distillation the liquid is separated into solvent and odorous residue. The 

 solvent retained by the drug may recovered by steam-distillation of the boxes. Owing 

 to the low loss of solvent this process seems to be preferred to other methods 4 ). 



A. Koehler 5 ) has constructed a contrivance for abstracting automatically the odorous 

 principle from flowers. The flowers are fed from a hopper on a circulating greased belt 

 running over two cylinders. After a certain time the flowers are stripped off from the belt. 



The recovery of essential oils from the distillation waters by cohobation is stated, 

 in a communication by J. de Lorgues 6 ), to have been introduced in Southern France 

 about ten years ago by Charabot and Laloue. We beg to point out that in the Barreme 

 factory, erected by Schimmel 8* Co. in 1905, this well-known process has been made 

 us of in the distillation of lavender oil. 



y ) Americ. Perfum. 16 (1921), 107. — *) We were hitherto unable to ascertain what is meant by Kasturi 

 arsina. Probably, it is the case of Kasturi arishina = Curcuma aromatica, Salisb., or Kasturi bhendi = Hibiscus 

 Abelmoschus, L. (Cf. Dymock, Warden, and Hooper, Pharmacographia Indica, 1890.) — ») French Pat. 505085, 

 Oct. 1, 1920. — *) Cf. Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, 2 nd ed., vol. I, p. 247. — B ) French 

 Pat. 518713, May 30, 1921. As per Chem. Zmtralbl. 1921, IV. 596. — 8 ) Perfum. Record 12(1921), 143; Chemist 

 and Druggist 94 (1921), 855. 



