54 
Sandalwood  Oil  Requirements. 
/Am.  Jour.  Phar ru. 
\    February,  1908. 
Some  of  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  these  results  are: 
(1)  That  the  optical  rotation  as  given  in  the  U.S.P.  is  too  high 
and  should  be  changed  to  read  — 12°  to  — 20°  as  in  the  main  distil- 
late, which  makes  up  over  90  per  cent,  of  the  distillate,  none  of  the 
products  run  anywhere  near  the  limits  of  the  U.S. P.,  although  they 
are  fully  up  to  and  most  of  them  above  the  standard  in  santalol  and 
in  specific  gravity,  and  two  of  them  are  all  right  in  solubility.  This 
almost  proves,  in  our  opinion,  the  fallacy  of  the  optical  rotation 
standard. 
(2)  That  the  solubility  in  70  per  cent,  alcohol  is  not  a  safe  crite- 
rion, since  an  oil  that  contains  95  per  cent,  of  santalol  (see  lot  V 
Main  Distillate)  still  falls  below  the  allowed  standard,  with  a  solu- 
bility of  1  to  6  instead  of  I  to  5  volumes,  and  an  oil  (see  lot  IV 
Main  Distillate)  that  runs  as  high  as  97-7  per  cent,  santalol  is 
insoluble  in  5  volumes  of  70  per  cent,  alcohol. 
(3)  That  although  all  the  acid  numbers  are  low  and  show  freedom 
from  admixture  of  any  adulteration,  they  serve  no  value  as  an  indi- 
cation of  the  quality  of  the  oil ;  their  purpose  being,  hence,  only 
negative. 
These  results  were  obtained  by  distilling  the  sandalwood  logs  in 
at  least  1,000  pounds  lots  in  each  case,  and  in  most  cases  in  much 
larger  lots,  so  that  the  end  product  was  a  representative  average 
product  in  each  case.  Although  in  all  we  tried  about  thirty  varie- 
ties of  wood  from  the  most  expensive  to  sandalwood  sawdust,  only 
about  half  of  the  oils  obtained  possessed  an  optical  rotation  high 
enough  to  pass  U.S.P.  requirements.  Fully  90  per  cent.,  however, 
passed  muster  as  to  specific  gravity  within  the  limits  0  965  to  0-980, 
as  to  solubility  in  70  per  cent,  alcohol  at  300  C.  and  percentage  of 
santalol. 
We  also  examined  two  samples  of  domestic  santal  oil  from  repu- 
table firms  bought  on  the  open  market  and  found  that  they  both 
answered  U.S.P.  requirements,  save  the  optical  rotation,  which  in 
both  cases  was  only  — 13°.  Similarly  W.  J.  Bush  &  Co.1  found  that 
of  oils  obtained  from  sixteen  different  parcels  of  genuine  East 
Indian  sandalwood  only  five  gave  a  specific  rotation  higher  than 
—  i6°,and  they  further  state  that  this  result  confirms  their  previous 
experiences.    Add  to  this  the  experience  of  Messrs.  Evans  Sons, 
1  Loc.  cit. 
