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COMMERCIAL NOTES AND SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION. 71 
The Deputy for the Constituency of Cannes-Antibes, which is the principal orange- 
flower producing district, has brought a Bill before the Chamber of Deputies imposing 
high customs duties upon foreign neroli oil and upon petitgrain oil, namely 100.— fcs. 
per kilo on the former, and 25.—fcs. upon the latter. The argument in favour of the 
proposal is that the foreign oils are inferior in quality to the French, and are used 
to adulterate, and as a substitute for, the latter. The Commission of Customs has 
decided to reduce the proposed duties. to 70.— feces. for neroli oil and 5.-— /rs. for petit- 
grain oil, and, thus amended, the Bill is shortly to come before the Chamber. 
In the year 1902 we detected in our laboratory the presence in neroli oil*) of the 
following: /-a-pinene, camphene, dipentene, J-linalool, decylic aldehyde, phenyl-ethyl 
alcohol, d-terpineol, jasmone (?), phenylacetic acid, and benzoic acid. Shortly afterwards 
Hesse and Zeitschel*) reported on their investigation of neroli oil, in the course of 
which they found camphene, J/-linalool, linalyl acetate, d-terpineol, geraniol, and gerany]l 
acetate, and, in addition to these, indol, nerol, and nerolidol. Among these constituents 
of neroli oil, Tiemann and Semmler® had already at an earlier date isolated /-linalool 
and its acetic ester. 
When we had occasion recently to establish the occurrence of nerolidol and 
peruviol in Peru balsam oil, (see p. 81) and, with this object, to isolate pure nerolidol, 
we noticed that neroli oil contains still another constituent with a b. p. exceeding that 
of nerolidol. This body is farnesol. We isolated this sesquiterpene alcohol C1; H2.O 
at 120° from those fractions of the oil which boil above 127° (4 to 5 mm.) by treating 
them with phthalic anhydride. Its physical characters, which were as follow: b. p. 140 
to 141° (3 to 4 mm.), dis00,8934, &p + 0°, npzo 1,48991, agreed with those recently 
recorded by M. Kerschbaum‘*) for farnesol from ambrette seed oil. The body was oxi- 
dised into farnesal with bichromate and sulphuric acid. The aldehyde regenerated 
from the bisulphite-compound afforded a semicarbazone with a very indefinite m. p. 
In the case of the material examined by us, which turned soft first, it was found to 
be between 127 and 132°, whereas Kerschbaum*) gives it as from 133 to 135°. We had 
very little material at our disposal, so that it was impossible further to purify the 
substance. The farnesol content of neroli oil probably does not exceed 2 p.c. 
Niaouli Oil. As is well known this oil, which goes in France under the name 
of gomenol, is distilled in New Caledonia from the leaves of a species of Melaleuca. 
Although the therapeutical action of the oil does probably not differ from that of 
cajuput oil or eucalyptus oil, it nevertheless has found numerous friends among the 
manufacturers of medicinal specialities, and our increasing sales indicate that in the 
future the article may acquire increasing importance. 
Nutmeg Oil. There has been a sufficient selection of those varieties of nutmegs 
which are suitable for distilling, and it has therefore not been necessary to carry out 
the advance in prices which was lately feared to be unavoidable. We regard a decline 
in the market as practically out of the question, and the present quotations therefore 
appear to offer an inducement to lay in a plentiful stock. We always have several 
thousand kilos in our warehouse and are therefore able to offer nutmeg oil at advan- 
tageous prices. 
1) Report October 1902, 54; April 1908, 53. — *) Journ. f. prakt. Chem. II. 66 (1902), 481; Report April 
1903, 53. — %) Berl. Berichte 26 (1893), 2711. — *) Berl. Berichte 46 (1913), 1733; Report October 1913, 140. 
