( 17 ) 
Chemistry. — “The essential oil from the fruits of Morinda 
citnfolia L” By Prof. P. van Romburgh. 
(Communicated in the meeting of April 23, 1909). 
Morinda citrifolia L, a plant from the family of the Rubiaceae 
(Malay : Bengkudu, Sundanese: Tjangkudu) occurs in the wild state 
in Java and is also cultivated for the sake of the red dye, which 
can be obtained from the root bark. The over ripe fruits of this 
shrub have a very disagreeable odour, reminding of rancid fat. Some 
years ago, when at Buitenzorg, I prepared from it an essential oil 
by distillation in water vapour, which was subjected in 1896 to a 
preliminary investigation by my then assistant C. J. E. Lohmann 1 ), 
which showed it to contain a higher volatile fatty acid, accompanied 
by an ester. 
During my stay at Buitenzorg, last summer, I found back an old 
specimen of the oil and Dr. A. W.K.deJong had the great kindness 
to prepare for me the essential oil from 1000 Kilos of Bengkudu 
fruits, for which I wish to express my gratitude, so that I had 
sufficient material for an investigation. 
A portion of the essential oil was separated by decantation from 
the aqueous distillate, but in other cases the oil was obtained by 
shaking the aqueous distillate with benzene. 
The oil separated by decantation had a brownish-yellow colour 
and was turbid owing to minute, glittering, crystals floating therein. 
The specific gravity was 0.927 at 13°. The sp.gr. of another sample, 
oi which only a small quantity was at my disposal, was 0.961 at 14°. 
The crystals were filtered off and the filtered oil treated with a 
dilute sodium hydroxide solution, in which it is almost entirely 
soluble, while a turbid liquid is formed from which a thin oily layer 
separates after a very long time. Shaking with ether or benzene 
readily causes emulsions, which separate with difficulty. The least 
troublesome way to etfect the separation of the volatile neutral com¬ 
ponents from the substances dissolved in the alkali was found to be 
a careful distillation of the dilute solution. 
With the aqueous vapours a liquid, the odour of which is not 
disagreeable, passes over, which floats on water. The alkaline liquid 
wh,ch was heated in a basin on the waterbath, in order to remove 
the last traces of volatile admixtures, was strongly acidified with 
sulphnne acid and a yellow layer of liquid acids collected on the 
sur face. Wh en these had been removed the liquid was distilled to 
l ) Report Gov. Botanical Gardens, Buitenzorg 1896 p. 59. 
Proceedings Royal Acad. Amsterdam. Vol. XIL 
