COMMERCIAL NOTES AND SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION. 45 
Among the Java citronella oils those with a high citronellal content were generally 
distinguished by a particularly delicate aroma; these samples, moreover, had a very 
low sp. gr. 
In view of the great scarcity of Java citronella oil, of which the supply is insuffi- 
cient to meet the European and American demand, Prof. W. Dunstan has suggested 
to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce whether it would not be worth while to cultivate 
in Ceylon on a large scale’) the Maha Pengiri or Winter’s Grass variety of the plant, 
from which the Java oil is obtained. So far, this variety of grass is very little grown 
in Ceylon. If the cultivation is to be made to pay the oil would have to realise better 
prices than it now commands, for although Maha Pengiri grass requires a better soil 
and greater care than does Lenabatu grass, both oils realise the same price in Ceylon, 
whereas Java citronella oil is commercially worth more than twice as much as Ceylon 
citronella oil. According to Drieberg, of Peradeniya, the cultivation of citronella grass 
in Ceylon is not increasing, and although a little more grass is now grown in the 
district of Tangalle than formerly, the cultivation in the district of Galle-Matara has 
been superseded by that of rubber. This statement, however, is not in accord with 
that in the Ceylon Handbook, according to which there were in September 1913 
5293 acres under citronella grass, as compared with 4359 acres in 1911. The demand 
for citronella oil appears to be continually increasing, and in spite of the larger oil- 
shipments from Ceylon the prices have not declined to any appreciable extent, neither 
have there been any considerable accumulations of stock in Europe or America. Up 
to December 8, 1913 the shipments from Ceylon amounted to 1430137 Ibs., or 
159288 Ibs. more than in the corresponding period of the previous year. Of this 
quantity 565162 Ibs. were shipped to England (567670 Ibs. in 1912), 451531 Ibs. to the 
United States (436413 lbs. in 1912) and 204601 Ibs. to Germany (153087 Ibs. in 1912). 
Many years ago we”) detected the presence in Ceylon-citronella oil of a sesquiterpene 
_ with the low specific gravity 0,8043 (15°). It is probable that this body may be identical 
with an aliphatic sesquiterpene Ci;Hes which has been discovered in Java citronella 
oil by F.W. Semmler and K. E. Spornitz*), and which they call sesquicitronellene. At 
the time we separated the sesquiterpene from methyleugenol by repeated washing with 
60 and 70 p.c. alcohol. Semmler and Spornitz have applied the same method to a 
sesquiterpene fraction of the Java-citronella oil, which we had placed at their disposal. 
By means of repeated fractionation they succeeded in isolating the sesquicitronellene 
in the pure state from the product which had been distilled over sodium. The body 
possessed the following characters: b. p. 138 to 140° 9 mm.), dooo 0,8489, a, + 0° 30’, 
Mp 1,53252. Curiously enough the molecular refraction was found to be 74,53, whereas 
the calculation for Ci;H24/, 69,6. A similar high degree of exaltation has been 
observed in the aliphatic terpene, ocimene. The reduction of sesquicitronellene with 
sodium and alcohol gave rise to dihydrosesquicitronellene, Ci;Hos. The fact that it is 
possible to reduce the sesquiterpene with sodium and alcohol is evidence that, like 
myrcene and ocimene, it contains two conjugated double bonds. Dihydrosesquicitro- 
nellene boils between 131 and 133° (12 mm.): doo 0,8316, &p) + 0°, np 1,4800. With 
platinum and hydrogen the sesquiterpene afforded octohydrosesquicitronellene, C1;Hs:: 
b.p. 115 to 117° (9 mm.), doo 0,7789, %p + 0°, np 1,43518. By the aid of concentrated 
1) The Chemist and Druggist 84 (1914), 3. — 7) Report October 1899, 23. — 4%) Berl. Berichte 46 
(1913), 4025. 
