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Oil of Cinnamon leaves. It appears that important stocks 
of this Ceylon product have accumulated in Europe and America, as 
the shipments this year up to the beginning of August have fallen 
from 66536 ounces in the same period to only half, i. e. 33435 ounces. 
We are informed that the present value is unremunerative for the 
manufacturers. A smaller production will have to be reckoned upon. 
Oil of Cinnamomum pedatinervium. E. Gouldingi) has 
published an examination of the essential oil from the bark of a tree 2) 
indigenous to the Fiji Islands (^Cinnamomum pedatinerdium). The 
pulverised bark yielded on distillation with steam 0,92 per cent, of 
a yellowish-brown oil with a pleasant spicy odour. The oil is optically 
active [ajj) = — 4^96'; v^j^^^o = 1,4963; in a refrigerating mixture 
it did not solidify. At ordinary pressure it distilled from 180° to 255°. 
The saponification number was 4,4 = 1,5 per cent, ester, calculated 
for linalyl acetate. After acetylising the oil, the saponification number 
had risen to 115,8, which proves that the oil contains about 30,75 
per cent, free alcohols of the formula QoH^gO. From the result of 
a methoxyl-determination, the content of 1,16 per cent. OCH3 could 
be calculated. 
The chemical examination of the oil showed that the principal 
constituent (about 50 per cent.) is safrol; there were further detected: 
about 30 per cent, linalool, 10 to 20 per cent, unknown terpenes, 
I per cent, eugenol, and about 3 per cent, eugenol methyl ether (?). 
The terpene fraction distilled from 167° to 172°; it had the specific 
gravity 0,8659 ^5°? specific rotatory power \_a\jy — 17,72°, and 
yielded a liquid dibromide. 
From the linalool fraction citral was obtained by oxidation with 
chromic acid; this was proved by the conversion into a-citryl-^S-naph- 
thocinchoninic acid. The eugenol obtained by extraction with dilute 
caustic soda-lye yielded the benzoyl compound melting at 70°. The 
presence of safrol was proved by oxidation of the corresponding frac- 
tion into piperonal and piperonylic acid, and also by isolating the safrol- 
a-nitrosite (melting at 129° to 130°) according to Angeli and Rimini's 
method^). 
Citronella Oil. In the Official Report of the Royal Botanic 
Garden in Ceylon it is explicitly stated that the citronella-oil industry 
is still in a very depressed condition, and shows a decrease of about 
15 per cent, in the year 1902. The continual adulteration of this 
^) The constituents of the volatile oil of the bark of CinjiamomMm ^edatinervmm 
of Fiji. Thesis, London 1903. 
^) The tree has been described by Berth old Seemann in his Flora Vitiensis, 
p. 202. 
^) Gazz. chim. ital. 25 II. (1895), 200. 
