— 45 — 
In French lavender oil there had up to now been detected: linalol; 
Imalyl acetate, butyrate and valerianate (?) geranioPj; pinene; cineol'^); 
and coumarin-^). By an examination which we recently again took up, 
we have been able to increase the knowledge of this oil by a few 
important bodies. We worked up 4 kilos of a genuine oil from the 
South of France, which had the following physical constants: specific 
gravity 0,8902; optical rotation a£) — 7°6'; saponification number 116,5, 
corresponding to an ester-content of 40,7 per cent, linalyl acetate. In 
order to prevent decomposition as far as possible, we distilled in vacuo 
right from the beginning. Between 30° (40 mm) and 125° (5 mm) the 
whole quantity of oil passed over, apart from about 350 grams of a 
resinous residue. 
With fuchsin and sulphurous acid, the first portions, boiling between 
95° and 125°, showed a strong aldehyde-reaction. From this, and also 
from the fact that a crystalline compound was thereby obtained in 
minute quantity, from which sodium carbonate liberated a substance 
which strongly excited coughing, it may be assumed that valeric 
aldehyde was present in the first runnings. 
Traces of amyl alcohol also appear to be present in lavender 
oil. For example, it was possible to obtain from the fraction boiling 
from 125^ to 140°, with phthalic anhydride, a small quantity of a 
liquid boiling from 129° to 133°, which violently reacted with sodium, 
with formation of a colourless compound. From the latter an oil was 
separated off with water, which had the characteristic odour of amyl 
alcohol. 
1- Pinene. We have once more thought it worth while to demon- 
strate the presence of this hydrocarbon which we had already previously 
detected in lavender oil. It was found without difficulty in a fraction 
of the boiling point 153° to 159° (72° to 75° at 2 1 mm), with the 
specific gravity 0,8641, optical rotation — 6° 10', by means of the 
nitrosochloride of the melting point 103°, and the nitrolbenzylamine 
melting at 122°. 
Cineol. This body, which also had been discovered previously, 
was contained in a fraction boiling between 175° and 177°, and having 
the optical rotation ajy — i°io'. The iodol compound produced in 
large quantity, melted after purification from alcohol at 112°. The 
presence of the two last-named bodies in lavender oil may thus be 
accepted as definitely proved. Other terpenes, such as phellandrene,. 
dipentene, and limonene, could not be detected. 
^) Report April 1892, 22. — Journ. f. prakt. Chem. II. 45 (1892), 590. 
2) Report April 1898, 31. 
^) Report October 1893, 26. — Journ. f. prakt. Chem. loc. cit. 
^) Report October 1900, 40. 
