COMMERCIAL NOTES AND SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION. 3O 
G. R. von Wielligh') reports on the history, cultivation, and commerce of the buchu 
shrub in South Africa. Instead of cultivating the plant, it has in many parts been 
cut down or uprooted. The result of this has been that the plants are now only 
found here and there in small numbers, so that it scarcely pays to collect the leaves. 
It does not, however, appear to be very easy to cultivate the buchu-shrub, for the 
cuttings take root with difficulty; they thrive best in very sandy soil. The reason 
may also be that so far there is little experience to go upon in the matter of syste- 
matic cultivation, as the buchu-shrub is only occasionally grown as an ornamental plant. 
Possibly this state of things may undergo a change now that the Bill to which 
we referred on p. 28 of our last Report has been passed into law. 
Cajuput Oil. The value of this article has undergone no changes whatever during 
the last few months. The arrivals were sufficient to satisfy the requirements, especially 
because a small stock still remained on hand from the year 1912. As previously, the 
largest quantities again went to the United States, where the oil is used in the manu- 
facture of a few well-established patent medicines. In Europe, the cheaper grades of 
eucalyptus oil constitute dangerous competitors for cajuput oil. No statistical details 
are available on the present occasion; since the official export-lists of Macassar 
have ceased to enumerate cajuput oil independently it is difficult to obtain accurate 
information concerning the shipments. 
We gather from the American Perfumer*) that the Bureau of Chemistry of the 
Department of Agriculture of the United States has rejected, among other oils, a sample 
of cajuput oil because it contained copper. On this we would observe that a slight 
copper-content is almost characteristic of crude cajuput oil, and in the vast majority 
of cases is the agent to which its green or bluish-green colour is due. The presence 
of copper is therefore simply an indication that the oil is in the crude state, but does 
not warrant any conclusion as to the oil being adulterated or otherwise. Seeing that 
the United States Pharmacopeceia lays it down that cajuput oil shall not give a reaction 
for copper, the sample referred to above should only have been rejected on the ground 
that it did not conform with the requirements of the U. S. Pharmacopceia. 
Calamus Oil. The scarcity of this article, of which we have already had to 
complain in our last two Reports, still continues, for the small quantities of calamus 
root which are gathered in the low-lying grounds of the central Elbe and the Saale 
rivers are quite insufficient to supply enough oil to cover the requirements even 
approximately. Russian calamus root is either wanting altogether, or is being offered 
at prices which leave no profit even at the present high quotations of calamus oil. 
It is true that some interest has been shown on the European markets for a few small 
parcels of Japanese calamus oil, but the quality of these was too abnormal to make 
them suitable as a substitute for the usual European oil. 
How popular an adulterant glycerol acetate has become is evident from the fact 
that we found it to be present in a sample of calamus oil recently submitted to us 
for our opinion; that is to say, in yet another oil of which the value does not at all 
1) Agricultural Journal of the Union of South Africa, July 1913; Chemist and Druggist 83 (1913), 403. 
Also comp. Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter 84 (1913), No. 18, p.35. — %) Americ. Perfumer 8 (1913), 225. 
3 
