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ee REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. OCTOBER 1914/ APRIL 1915. 
S 
Scientific Notes on Essential Oils. 
Ageratum Oil. Many years ago this oil had been distilled by van Romburgh?) 
from material collected in Buitenzorg. Roure-Bertrand Fils*) give the following pro- 
perties for an Ageratum oil received by them from Annam: djs0 1,1090; a) — 1° 20’; 
acid v. 0,9; ester v. 11,2; almost completely soluble in 5 volumes and more of 80 p.c. ~ 
and in 0,5 vol. of 90 p.c. alcohol. The yield was 0,0054 p.c. According to Murat, 
Ageratum conyzoides, L. (N. O. Compositae) grows so freely as to constitute a pest for 
the planter in Annam. Distillation is started at the beginning of February or March. . 
Almond Oil, bitter. In an English contemporary’) the following method is 
recommended for the chlorine test in bitter almond oil. A piece of metallic sodium, 
about the size of a pea, is dropped into 1 cc. of bitter almond oil in a dry test tube, 
the whole being heated until all chemical action has ceased. The test tube and con- 
tents are immersed, whilst still hot, in a porcelain dish containing 10 cc. of distilled 
water. The solution is filtered, acidulated with nitric acid, and silver nitrate solution is 
added. Turbidity or opalescence indicates the presence of chlorine compounds; a blank 
test should be performed to ensure the absence of chlorine in the materials used. 
This test is said to be even more sensitive than our combustion process. At all 
events its author claims that an artificial benzaldehyde, which had been found to be 
free from chlorine according to the latter method, showed a distinct chlorine reaction 
on being subjected to the first-named test. 
On our making comparative tests we failed to make such observations, but we 
may say at once that this new test has the decided disadvantage of being more 
complicated than the combustion process. Moreover, with bitter almond oil containing 
prussic acid a strong precipitation of cyanide of silver takes place, which only 
disappears after prolonged heating of the mixture. 
On the occurrence, in the Vegetable Kingdom, of glucosides hydrolysable with 
emulsin, see page 79. 
On amygdalin contents of apricot kernels, see page 80. 
Amber Oil. About the composition of amber oil, which — strictly speaking — 
does not belong to the group of essential oils at all, all that was known so far was 
that, besides a terpene mixture, it contained other hydroaromatic hydrocarbons, but no 
clear proof of the existence of these bodies had been adduced. Of late, however, 
more knowledge has been gained about the composition of the oil, A. Karoly*) having 
examined a rectified oil of amber which contained about 5 to 8 p.c. of acids and 
esters, besides hydrocarbons. The acids consisted of higher fatty acids which were 
removed by shaking with. dilute alkali. On being fractionated over sodium, under 
1) Report April 1898, 53. — %) Berichte von Rouwre-Bertrand Fils April 1914, 8. — %) Perfum. Record 5 
(1914), 264. — 4) Berl. Berichte 47 (1914), 1016. 
