ESSENTIAL Use et at 
istillati the asda known fast betvamot oil. The Sein peasant may be at liberty 
to distil bergamot roots as he wishes; however, the product must be first sent to 
Measina and there inspected by the authorities. American meee bought up the whole 
harvest months before the distillation. 
“At Re bergamot harvest during recent aeas, see pp. 23 and if of this Report. 
SS ; : : ‘| ) 
q Sieecn Oi. — Already in a last Report in discussing’ an adulterated cassia oil, 
we had remarked that people were not so Sparing in adding phthalic acid ester as 
_ formerly; for the original idea of the raising of the ester content very often does not 
_ come into question at all‘). In this inglorious field a small Leipzig firm has especially 
" distinguished itself, on account of which it has been mentioned many times in our last. 
_ Report (pp. 15, 38, 63, 69); and also again this time many oils originating from them 
came to us for examination which were adulterated in the manner mentioned. Amongst 
3 them were a lemon oil and a sweet orange oil, which we will discuss together in order 
not to repeat ourselves. Each had experienced an addition of about 50 per cent. 
_ phthalic ester, an amount which naturally had a strong influence — on the constants of 
oils. The determination of the Specitic. gravity and the optical rotation alone sufficed 
to recognise the adulteration. : | 
Sh Se Oil. Bima ounee Oil, sweet. 
Bo Si: + Sample Limiting Values Sample Limiting Values 
iho. -. ~ 0.9813 */0.856'to 0.851 0.9622 0.848 to (0.853 
pmo ESI aca a 31°25! + 57° to + 61° ah + 34° 20° +959 30" to +98° 
A ‘saponification gave information as to the adulterant; saiitet the ester value 
~ was abnormally high (262.6 and 237.1 respectively). According to this an ester had 
-been used, which on further investigation proved to be phthalic acid ester. Judging 
Z by the constants both oils, as ances oe ad had been adulterated to the extent 
of about 50 per cent. | Ky (ek ‘ 
4\ 
: aie faidunidtion about the piluiteration of lemon oi A. Guido?) has published a 
: ork: The determination of the specific gravity, and ‘the: rotatory power does not 
_always suffice to prove adulteration in the case oils skilfully adulterated with terpenes, 
sesquiterpenes or citral. On the other hand in cases where it can be established that 
foreign substances have been added to the oil, one ought to test the ee in 
alcohol of as many fractions of the sample as possible. © 
Guido prepared a mixture of 270 cc. of lemon oil, 30 cc. of limonene, 0.9 cc. of 
pure citral and 0.6 gm. sesquiterpene. By means of the usual constants (dis0 0.8600; 
[e]p + 60°52’, critical solubility temperature*) 66.19) this artificial product was. ines: 
‘tinguishable from the genuine oil. The boiling points also of 25 various fractions of 
each kind of both oils agreed very closely. On the contrary the critical. solution 
temperatures ‘of the corresponding fractions showed differences now and again; and 
amongst. the last distillations there were remarkable differences which were conditioned 
by the. varying content of both the samples in oxygenated ingredients. 
1) Report 1919, 15. Cf. tee ites pp. 14, 38, 63, 69. — 7) Sulle essenze di limone. LEstr. Annali 
R. Stazione di Agricoltura e Frutticoltura Vol. IV, p. 209. (The date of the year is missing in the Original.) 
‘According to kindly forwarded special reprint. — *) This manner of nomenclature of Guido’s has nothing to 
ee with a critical temperature in in the scientific sense. td 
of lemon oil and orange oil is normally quite insignificant, in the above two cases it 
