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COMMERCIAL NOTES AND SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION. 83 
ganate in an alkaline solution, this fraction afforded a liberal yield of the sodium salt 
of nopinic acid, a body which crystallises in brilliant leaflets, from which, by resolving 
it with sulphuric acid, we obtained nopinic acid, m.p. 126 to 127°. For purposes of 
further identification we prepared from the nopinic acid nopinone, which, with benzalde- 
hyde, condensed readily into the benzylidene compound CyHi20: CHC;H;*), m. p. 107°. 
The surmise that petitgrain oil belongs to the class of oils containing /-S-pinene, 
was therefore confirmed. 
A sample of petitgrain oil distilled in Jamaica has been examined at the Imperial 
Institute in London?). The oil possessed the following constants: di500,8884, 2» —6° 45’, 
sol. in its own vol. a.m. of 80 p.c. alcohol. It contained 31,6 p.c. free and 55,65 p.c. 
esterified alcohols. 
The oil is noteworthy for its comparatively high degree of lzevo-rotation, for in 
the case of the commercial oil, which comes mostly from Paraguay, the rotation 
varies from + 5° to —2°43’. It is possible that this may be due to the circum- 
stance that the crude material consisted principally of leaves, at any rate experiments 
made many years ago by Charabot and Pillet®) showed that the leaves of the bitter 
orange tree yielded oils which were more lzvorotatory than the other oils. Incidentally 
we may here refer to another oil from Jamaica which was forwarded to us a long time 
ago. Its characters were similar to those of the oil above referred to, but it contained 
rather less ester: dis0 0,8846, a) — 6°30’, acid v. 0, ester v. 82,0 = 28,7 p.c. ester 
calc. as linalyl acetate, sol. in 2 vols. a.m. of 70 p.c. alcohol. 
Pimento Leaf Oil. The Imperial Institute in London*) reports on a pimento leaf 
oil distilled in Jamaica (from Pimenta officinalis, Lindl., N. O. Myrtacee) which possessed 
the following properties: diso 1,026, #) — 5°30’, sol. in 1,6 vols. of 70 p.c. alcohol. 
68,6 p.c. of the oil consists of phenols, principally eugenol. 
: Pine-needle Oils. Nothing new is to be reported on the present occasion con- 
cerning Siberian pine-needle oil, a perfumery-material which is highly valued in the 
manufacture of all technical products, pine-needle oil from Abies pectinata, which is 
used in the numerous preparations for purifying the air and for spraying, or oil of 
Pinus Pumilio. Oil from the cones of Abies pectinata (ol. templinum) was somewhat 
scarce, but here also the supplies from Switzerland were sufficient, and there has 
been no necessity to advance the quotations. 
C. Th. Mérner*) has tested a series of oils from the needles of conifers and has 
ascertained that a considerable amount of sophistication is practised with these oils, 
and that great caution is therefore advisable in buying. Of 28 samples of commercial 
oils, Morner states only 15 could be described as of good quality. Turpentine oil is 
very commonly used as an adulterant. Such adulteration cannot be detected by 
isolating the pinene, because pinene is a normal constituent of all the oils from 
conifer-needles; only serious additions of turpentine oil are detectable, owing to the 
fact that the oil-fraction with b. p. below 165° is larger in proportion than is the case 
with pure oils. 
1) Wallach, Liebigs Annalen 313 (1900), 365; Report April 1901, 61. — 2) Bull. ‘Imp. Inst. 11 (1913), 487. — 
3) Bull. Soc. chim. Ml, 21 (1899), 73. — *) Bull. Imp. Inst. 11 (1913), 438. — 5) Svensk Farmaceutisk Tidskrift 
) 
1913, No. 18, 19; Apotheker Ztg. 28 (1913), 766. 
6* 
