Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1889. 
Notes  on  Essential  Oils. 
313 
is  ordinarily  mixed  with  the  essence  prepared  later  from  ripe  fruit.  Care- 
fully examined  in  a  glass  tube  it  cannot  properly  be  called  '  green,'  but  there 
is  always  a  yellow  color  perceptible.  The  emerald  green  essences  which 
have  been  exported  from  Messina  are  such  as  have  been  allowed  to  stand 
for  a  long  time  in  badly  tinned  vessels,  and  the  color  is  due  to  oxide  of  cop- 
per." The  second  correspondent  says  :  "  After  the  working  of  the  bergamot 
fruit  the  essence  obtained  is  honey  colored,  and  it  is  usually  put  forward 
and  sought  for  of  this  color.  The  green  color  is  acquired  when  the  oil  is 
allowed  to  stand  a  certain  time — about  seven  or  eight  months — in  the  ves- 
sels ;  it  attacks  the  tinning  and  becomes  green  through  contact  with  the 
copper.  This  is  the  correct  explanation  of  the  two  colors  ;  any  other  is 
false." 
Cajeput  Oil. — Referring  to  a  large  consignment  from  Macassar,  Messrs. 
Schimmel  state  that  according  to  their  experience  cajeput  oil  directly  im- 
ported is  always  genuine  and  trustworthy,  but  that  in  intervening  commerce, 
and,  as  they  hear,  especially  in  America,  it  gets  adulterated  with  camphor 
oil.  On  practical  grounds  an  adulteration  with  eucalyptus  oil  is  not  to  be 
feared,  as  that  oil  is  more  costly. 
Calamus  Oil. — Reporting  on  the  Japanese  calamus  root  referred  to  in  the 
previous  Bericht  (see  before,  p.  326)  it  is  stated  that  these  roots  do  not  differ 
externally  from  European  calamus  roots,  and  are  no  doubt  derived  from  the 
same  species.  They  contain  5  per  cent,  of  a  highly  aromatic  essential  oil, 
which  is  considerably  heavier  than  the  German  calamus  oil,  having  a  specific 
gravity  of  0-991  at  16°  C.  It  boils  between  210°  and  290°  C. ;  if  the  distillate 
be  collected  in  two  fractions,  the  lower  portion  has  the  characteristic  cala- 
mus odor,  while  the  higher  boiling  portion  gives  off  the  peculiar  sesquiter- 
pene odor.  Japanese  calamus  oil  also  differs  from  the  European  in  solubil- 
ity, 1  part  dissolving  in  500  parts  of  50  per  cent,  spirit,  the  German  oil  re- 
quiring 1000  parts  of  spirit. 
Camphor  Oil. — Under  this  name  the  light-boiling  portion  of  the  crude 
camphor  oil  appears  to  find  enormously  increasing  industrial  application  as 
a  substitute  for  turpentine  oil.  More  detailed  information  is  now  given  con- 
cerning its  characters  and  composition.  It  is  stated  that  after  the  prelimi- 
nary runnings,  smelling  disagreeably  of  aldehydes  and  acids,  the  oil  begins 
to  boil  at  about  158°  C.  The  first  fraction,  boiling  between  158°  and  162°  C, 
consists  of  right-handed  pinene,  identified  by  the  formation  of  the  hydro- 
chlorate,  C10H16HC1,  as  well  as  of  nitrosoterpene,  melting  at  130°,  obtained 
by  treatment  of  pinene  nitrosochloride  with  alcoholic  potash.  In  the  por- 
tion boiling  between  169°  and  171°  phellandrene  was  detected,  but  in  very 
small  quantity ;  it  was  identified  by  its  nitrite,  melting  at  102°.  Dipentene 
was  found  in  camphor  oil  by  Wallach,  and  the  tetrabromide  and  nitrosyl- 
chloride  compound  maybe  easily  obtained  from  the  fraction  boiling  at  180°. 
The  occurrence  of  terpineol  in  camphor  oil  has  not  been  determined  with 
certainty.  Whilst  the  formation  of  a  compound  having  the  composition 
C10H162H[,  as  well  as  of  terpin  hydrate,  dipentene  and  terpinene,  rendered 
its  presence  highly  probable,  it  was,  on  the  other  hand,  rendered  doubtful 
