Peeonol. G. Péron*) has shown some years ago that pzonol dane cu 
in the roots of Peonia Moutan, Sims (N.O. Ranunculacece), but in the form.of a inci ide. 
Since then Y. Asahina and G. Shirabe’) have synthetically prepared a glucoside of 
pzonol. They obtained from pzonol, with the aid of 6-acetylbromoglucose, peony ; 
8-glucoside in the form of prismatic needles, m. p. 118°; tty — 79°. It crystaltaeaas “8 4 
2 molecules of water, which it loses at 59°, when the crystals turn opaque. ee. 
readily hydrolyzed by mineral acids and by emulsin, so that it cannot be identical 
with the glucoside from the roots of Peonia Moutan, which is not decomposed by 
emulsin. Tetra-acetylpzonyl-§-glucoside melts at 146°; [a], — 44. ae 
In a treatise, entitled “Contributions to the knowledge of phenol esters”, J. A. Ein- — 
horn’) ‘describes the constants of some phenol esters, which he prepared from the 
corresponding phenols and isovaleric acid in the presence of phosphoryl chloride; wiz., ~ 
phenyl isovalerate (b. p. 225 to 250°), thymyl zsovalerate, a colourless liquid of a smell 
like valerian and a taste reminding of thyme (b. p. 248 to 249° at 758 mm.; diso 0.9590) ; 
o-cresyl isovalerate, a colourless, oily liquid of an agreeable, ethereal smell (b. p. 174 to 
178° at 700 mm.; dis0 0.9894), m-cresyl isovalerate (b. p. 185° at 750 mm.; Giso, 00879) 
and p-cresyl iepialotale (b. p. 176 to 178° at 758 mm.; dis0 0.9884). 
Acids and lactones. 
Camphenonic acid. On dry distillation of camphenic acid, O. Aschan*) obtained a 
mixture of two acids, one solid of the formula CyHi;0-CO2H (m.p. 134°), which he 
calls camphenonic acid; the other, unsaturated, liquid, monobasic, CsHig-CO.,H, which 
he designates as camphenelauronolic acid. The former is highly stable when subjected 
to oxidizing influences: a boiling alkaline solution of permanganate did not act on it 
at all, whereas a mixture of concentrated and fuming nitric acids, on several days’ 
boiling, sparingly evolved red fumes and attacked the acid but slowly. It is not oxi- 
dized either on three hours’ boiling with chromic and acetic acids. This stability 
suggests that the keto group of the camphenonic acid is situated between two (Ceram. 
carbon atoms, which are not easily attacked. 
Supposing that the camphenonic acid forms from camphenic acid by dehydeaaas a 
according to the formula hereafter, an easy explanation of the behaviour of the former — 
is thus given. The fact that camphenonic acid is converted into camphenic acid by — 
fusion with potassium hydroxide, or by heating in a solution of sodium in alcohol, is 
likewise -a proof of above constitution. Camphenonic acid is the @-carboxylic acid of 
camphenilone. It distils undecomposed at from 310 to 312° under normal pressure. 
Such a stability of a 6-keto acid is not known in either the aliphatic or the monocyclic ~ 
series, but does not seem to be anything extraordinary with cyclic compounds, at least 
if the carboxyl is in certain positions. Camphenonic acid is converted by reduction into 3 
camphenolic acid, m. p. 99 to 100°. The preparation of the inactive camphenonic acid | 
yields as pecs the active variety, Ce and —79.2° er este 
1) Journ. de Pharm. et Chim. VII. 8 (1911), 93, 238; Report April 1911, 188. — ?) Tourn. de Pharaie fre 
Chim. VII. 18 (1916), 222; Journ. chem. Soc. 110 (1916), I. 412. — *) Bulet. Societ. de Strinte din Buowrest 17. 
(1915), 51;. Chem. Zentralbl. 1915, Il. 739.. — 4) Tiebigs Annalen 410 (1915), 240. 
