8 REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. OCTOBER 1915. 
The question as to whether relations exist in bay oil between phenol percentage 
and specific gravity is ventilated in a short note published in an English contemporary’) - 
from which it would appear that the specific gravity does not permit of any conclusions 
being drawn as regards the amount of phenols present in the oil. Several factors are 
presumably responsible for this, on the one hand the proportions of the various bodies 
contained in bay oil besides eugenol, but also the well-known readiness of myrcene 
to resinify. To cite but a few of the examples mentioned: three Dominica oils 
containing 24, 52 and 60p.c. of eugenol respectively showed specific gravities of 
0.960, 0.924 and 0.974 respectively, in other words figures which render any speculation 
about the one or the other constant impossible. 
Buchu Leaf Oil. On page 9 of our previous Report we mentioned an essay by 
E. Goulding and O. Roberts?) on the leaf oil of Barosma venusta, referred to in the 
Chemisches Zentralblatt. The original paper now being at our disposal, we are able 
to communicate the following complementary notes: The mother-plant occurs in con- 
siderable quantities in the Uitenhage district of Cape Colony. The myrcene was iden- 
tified by its constants as well as by the reduction product (dihydromyrcene) and its 
conversion, by hydration with sulphuric and glacial acetic acids, to an ester which 
resembled linalyl acetate in odour. Anisaldehyde was oxidized to anisic acid (m. p. 183 
to 184°), linalool to citral (naphthocinchoninic acid derivative), methylchavicol being 
converted to anethole. Goulding and Roberts could not prove the existence of chavicol, 
of which body, according to Jensen’), the oil contains 16 p.c. 
A new kind of buchu leaves is described in the Perfumery and Essential Oil Record 
[5 (1914), 373]. They originate from Barosma scoparia, E. et Z. and are very similar 
to the leaves of Barosma venusta (see above). The oil has a characteristic, pleasant 
odour; it does not appear to contain any buchu camphor. 
Cajuput Oil. On the determination of cineol in cajuput oil, see page 20 of 
this Report. 
Calamus Oil. In order to free the high-boiling parts of Japanese calamus oil 
from methyleugenol, Y. Asahina and E. Imai*) treated these parts with Grignard’s 
reagent; it was found by Simonis and Remmert®) and by Spath®) that this is capable of 
splitting off alkyl from phenol ethers, with reconversion of the phenol after the 
formula: — 
C,; Hs OCH; ++ CH; Mg! = C,H; OMg!1 + C, He. 
C;H;sOMgI-+H,O = C,H;OH + MgIOH 
The calamus oil (dis0 0.9820; # + 24.6°) examined by Asahina and Imai contained 
13 p.c. of methoxyl. Grignard’s reagent (consisting of 2.4 g. magnesium, 11.4 g. of 
ethyl bromide and some absolute ether) was allowed to act on 40g. of a fraction of 
the b. p. 120 to 140°%), containing 8.5 p.c. of methoxyl. The mixture was carefully 
heated; at 170 to 180° a fairly violent reaction set in, along with the formation of a 
1) Perfum. Record 6 (1915), 33. — *) Journ. Chem. Soc. 105 (1914), 2613. — %) Comp. Report April 1918, 
34. — *) Yakugakuzasshi of Nov. 1914, p. 1; Journ. de Pharm. et Chim. VII. 11 (1915), 299. — 5) Berl. 
Berichte 47 (1914), 269. — §) Monatsh. f. Chem. 35 (1914), 319; Berl. Berichte 47 (1914), 766. — %) The 
pressure is not stated in the abstract. 
