- 56 - 
The portions boiling slightly higher (60° to 70^ at 6 mm pressure) gave 
a feeble phellandrene-reaction. The quantity of phellandrene nitrite 
obtained was too small for the necessary purification by recrystallisation 
from acetic ether. It consequently melted already at 114° to 115^, 
after recrystallisation from a mixture of acetic ether and alcohol. But 
to all appearances it is here a question of the nitrite of the melting 
point 120° to 121°. 
By the foregoing examination, amyl alcohol, pinene, phellandrene, 
and linalool have been detected in addition to the already previously 
known constituents of geranium oil (geraniol, citronellol, menthone, 
tiglinic acid, fatty acids, and a paraffin of the melting point 63°). 
In a short treatise on "Rose geranium oil and its substitutes", 
Lyman F. Kebler^) calls attention to the difficulties connected occa- 
sionally with the valuation on the more expensive geranium oils, when 
they are adulterated with the cheaper East Indian oils. Kebler mentions 
for example the results of the examinations of a series of geranium, 
palmarosa, and gingergrass oils, from which it appears that the oils 
had partly been greatly adulterated. The nature of the adulterants used 
though, does not appear at first glance from the data given. 
In the course of last year we have repeatedly observed that 
palmarosa oil is sometimes added to geranium oils, and we quite agree 
withKebler's opinion as to the difficulties of detecting such adulteration. 
Gingergrass Oil is considered an inferior kind of palmarosa 
oil, and up to the present it was found in commerce nearly always 
adulterated. A thorough chemical examination of this oil, whose 
mother-plant is as little known as the actual place where it is produced, 
has not been made. In literature we only find a short communication 
by E. Gildemeister and K. Stephan^) on a genuine gingergrass oil, 
whose constants were as follows: d^go = 0,897; = — 2° 8'; the 
oil was soluble in 70 ^/q alcohol. They found that the oil — contrary 
to palmarosa oil — gave a feeble phellandrene-reaction with sodium nitrite 
and glacial acetic acid. We have lately received several consignments 
of this oil which made the impression of being genuine; at least, 
adulterations such as used to be frequently met with, could not be 
detected. 
The oil had the following constants :dj50 =0,9380; ajy = -\- 22^ 40' ; 
saponification number 24; saponification number after acetylisation 166. 
One part dissolved in 2,3 parts 70 ^/q alcohol; when more alcohol 
^) Adulterated Drugs and Chemicals. U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
Washington 1904. 
2) Archiv der Pharm. 234 (1896), 326. 
