MO LM mCP Eh dT beh be ie 
‘ ‘ pe eal Ware MD ee 
80 REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. APRIL 1914. 
It is further to be noted that the cultivation of the peppermint-plant is still re- — 
munerative at prices of 2,50 yen in Okayama, 8c. This is due to the fact that in the — 
North only corn and bean-fruits can be grown as substitutes of peppermint, and that — 
these crops, owing to the undeveloped condition of the means of communication, entail 
great expenses for transport upon the farmers, whereas the product of the peppermint — 
is collected from them free of charge by the agents. In the South, on the other hand, 
when peppermint ceases to be remunerative, the farmers turn to rice, which pays better. 
With regard to the future course of the peppermint market only this can be said, 
that the cultivation in Japan in the year 1914 will unquestionably decline very con- 
siderably. But it is doubted whether this will result in an early advance in prices. 
Peppermint oil and menthol can be kept for years, and it is therefore to be assumed 
that the industries in which these articles are used will cover their requis at 
the present low prices for a long time ahead. 
According to a statement in the Japan Chronicle of 14th November 1913, Chinese 
peppermint oil (see p. 77) has also appeared upon the market lately, but it is thought 
that at the present prices this product may not be able to compete with the Japanese oil. 
In our last October Report (p. 87) we referred to an article by Thoms, which had 
appeared in the Apotheker Zeitung, concerning several samples of oil distilled from 
Japanese peppermint which had partly been grown in Germany and partly in German 
South-West Africa. The results of this research have now also been published in the 
Arbeiten aus dem Pharmazeutischen Institut der Universitat Berlin (pp.77, Urban & Schwarzen- 
berg, Berlin and Vienna) of which Thoms is the Editor. Special mention should be 
made of the excellent illustration of Mentha canadensis var. piperascens, Briquet, the 
parent plant of Japanese peppermint, which is given in the article. 
Peru Balsam Oil. As long ago as the year 1899, H. Thoms’) isolated from Peru 
balsam oil an alcohol, peruviol, to which he assigned the formula C,3;He2.O. As this 
body was reputed to possess valuable aromatic properties, and as since then nothing 
has been published about it, we have now prepared and investigated the substance, 
with the object of testing its practical usefulness. The results of our investigations 
are described below: — 
The sample of Peru balsam oil under examination possessed the following con- 
stants: diso 1,1200, # +0° 55’, np» 1,57177, acid v. 36,4, ester v. 228,2, sol. in 0,5 vols. 
a.m. of 90 p.c. alcohol. 
With the object of isolating the alcohol, the oil was saponified with alcoholic 
potash; the alcoholic portions were driven over by steam after the spirit had been 
distilled off. The first body to pass over was a large quantity of benzyl alcohol, 
which sank in water, and towards the end of the manipulation there passed over a 
light oil with a characteristic balsamic odour. This body, after being purified by 
repeated fractionation, was found to possess the following characters: b. p. te to 1272 
(4 mm.), diso 0,8987, ap + 12°22’, npsoo 1,48982. 
A previously prepared product from Peru balsam oil had exactly similar pro- 
perties. As the examination of the body in question showed it to be identical with 
a sesquiterpene alcohol, possessing the structure Ci;H2..O (Hesse and Zeitschel’s 
nerolidol)?), whereas on the other hand its physical and chemical properties also 
1) Arch, der Pharm. 287 (1899), 274; Report October 1899, 49. — *%) Journ. f. prakt. Chem. Il. 66 ye 
481; Report April 1908, 53. 
