and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



93 



CITRONELLA OIL. 



As was to be foreseen, the prices of this 

 article have moved in very narrow limits ; nomi- 

 nally they remain below 1/- cif. even at the pre- 

 sent time, although exporters in Ceylon until 

 quite recently stood out for somewhat higher 

 rates. 



The exports from Ceylon 

 amounted to ... 1,276,965 lb. in 1908 



against ... 1,230,159 „ „ 1907 

 ,, ... 1,107,655 „ ,, 1906 



... 1,282,471 ,, ,, 1905 



The exports from 1st 

 Jan. to 15th Feb. 1909 amounted to 126,038 lbs. 

 do. 1908 76,291 „ 



do. 1907 „ 47,041 ,, 



do. 1906 ., 116,017 



The above figures show that the excess of 

 exports in the first five or six weeks of the new 

 year is already about 50,000 lb. as compared 

 with the year before, from which it may be 

 concluded that the reports as to scarcity of 

 supplies which periodically reach us from 

 Ceylon are not to be taken very seriously. 



At the present time it is difficult to judge 

 what course prices will take within the near 

 future. Although on the one hand the in- 

 creased exports may give rise to the belief that 

 the consumption of this oil is again on the in- 

 crease, we have on the other hand to take 

 account of the fact that, because of the 



SEVERE COMPETITION 



which exists among them, large soap manufac- 

 turers, especially in England, no longer consume 

 anything like as large a quantity of citronella 

 oil as in former years. Almost everywhere, 

 slightly scented household soap is being 

 superseded by strongly perfumed cheap toilet 

 soaps — a result of the extremely low-priced 

 synthetic perfumes which in recent times have 

 found more and more favour with the public. 



In these circumstances, we believe that it may 

 be assumed with some certainty that the 



PRESENT PRICES WILL NOT SHOW ANY SERIOUS 

 FLUCTUATION 



for some months to come. There is absolutely 

 no ground for expecting an advance in prices. 

 The sale of the highly popular 



JAVA CITRONELLA 



oil within the past few months has also been 

 extremely sluggish, and indications are already 

 perceptible of over-production, on the ground of 

 which a prospective decline in prices of this 

 variety is also to be looked for. 



As in the case of lemongrass*, de Jongf has 

 also conducted experiments on the oil content 

 of the various parts of Java citronella grass 

 [Andropogon Nardas Java ; sereh wangi) in 

 different stages of development, in order to 

 discover which is the most favourable time for 

 distilling. The result was exactly the same as 

 in the case of lemongrass ; as the leaf ages, the 

 oil content decreases ; the sheaths of the leaves 



* See Report November 1908, 81. 



t Teysmannia, 1908. from a copy kindly sent to us. 



and the roots contain much less oil than the 

 leaves themselves. In this case also, de Jong 

 considers it the best plan to cut the grass as 

 soon as four or five leaves have developed. The 

 greater richness in oil of citronella grass as com- 

 pared with lemongrass was remarkable ; the 

 former usually yielded three or four times 

 much oil as did the latter. As regards the pro- 

 perties of oil from different batches of old 

 leaves, the optical rotation and total geranioi 

 content (= geranioi + citronellal) show only 

 insignificant variations. The rotation varies 

 irregularly; values ranging from — 27o' to — 7o 36' 

 beiug observed in oil from leaves of various ages. 

 The total geranioi content first increases in an 

 ascending scale from the newest up to the 

 oldest leaf and afterwards decreases in a corres- 

 ponding manner; the lowest value was 85-57 

 the highest 93"3%. The results of this investi- 

 gation induced de Jong to make experiments as 

 to the time required for acetylation, the beha- 

 viour of the oil towards acetic anhydride the 

 volume of acetate of sodium to be added' and 

 the time required for saponification. On the 

 basis of these enquiries de Jong considers that 

 two hours are needed both for acetylation and 

 for saponification, and that for every 20 cc of 

 oil and acetic anhydride. 2g. of sodium acetate 

 are required in order to produce accurate re- 

 sults. He concludes this because in his experi- 

 ments on citronella oils, he obtained the best . 

 values by following this method. 



The oils examined by de Jong were soluble 

 in their parts of 80 per cent, alcohol; when 

 more than four parts of the solvent were 

 used, turbidity ensued. According to our ob- 

 servations, the Java oils of commerce make a 

 cl ear solution with 1 to 2 vols, of 80 per cent, 

 alcohol and more. Only in exceptional cases does 

 the diluted solution show opalescence. 



In our last April reports we called attention to 

 the occurrence of dextrorotatory citronella oils 

 a phenomenon which had never previously been 

 observed. An oil of this kind is also referred to 

 in the Buitenzorg Annual Report for 1907§ It 

 had an optical rotation of + 0° 45' and a specific 

 gravity of 0,87. 



Citronella in German Pacific Isles. 

 The experimental cultivation of citronella grass 

 m the German Pacific Islands having been 

 crowned with success, and resulted in the pro- 

 duction of oils of good quality, closely approxi- 

 mating Java oil, we now gather from a paper 

 read in Berlin by Prof. Preuss|| that Andropogon 

 Nardus (author?) is to be more extensively culti- 

 vated, as its distillation has already been taken 

 up on a large scale. From a specimen sent for 

 our examination we have been able to satisfy our- 

 selves of the good quality of the sample distil- 

 lates. The specimen examined has the following 

 characteristics; di 5 ° 0,8819, a D — 0° 46', n D20 

 1,46278 ; joint, content of geranioi and citronefla 

 85,9 o/o, soluble in 1,3 vols, and more of 80 per 

 cent alcohol. Schimmel d> Co.'s Semi-Annual 

 Report for April, 1909. 



t Report April 1908, 32. 



§ Jaarboek van net Departement van Landbouw in Na- 

 derlandsch-Indie 1907, 67. Batavia 1908 

 II Bencute d. deutseh. pharm, Ges. (1909), 25, 



