126 
Ylang-Ylang  Oil. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
X      Mar.,  1881. 
1864,  and  in  Paris  and  London  its  choice  fragrance  found  full  recog- 
nition. The  very  small  amounts  which  were  first  imported  from  the 
Indian  Archipelago  were  soon  followed  by  somewhat  larger  consign- 
ments from  Manilla,  where  German  pharmacists  occupied  themselves 
with  the  distillation  of  the  oil.  * 
Oscar  Reymann  and  Adolf  Rousch,  in  Manilla,  exhibited  the  Ylang- 
Ylang  oil  at  Paris  in  1878  ;  the  former  had  also  in  addition  the 
Cananga  flowers  themselves.  The  oil,  standing  by  its  side  of  the 
flowers  of  the  previously  mentioned  Michelia  champaca,  competes  with 
the  Cananga  oil,  or  Ylang-Ylang  oil,  in  respect  to  fragrance.  To  what 
extent  the  latter  has  found  favor  is  difficult  to  judge,  although  the 
reduction  in  price  which  the  same  has  experienced  would  speak,  prob- 
ably, for  a  somewhat  larger  demand ;  at  present  it  is  to  be  had  in 
Germany  for  about  600  marks  (150  dollars)  per  kilogram.^  As  the 
'  Oananga  tree  may  be  cultivated  very  easily  in  all  warmer  countries, 
and  is  probably  everywhere  provided  with  the  same  delightful  fra- 
grance of  the  flowers,  it  must  be  possible  to  furnish  the  oil  much 
cheaper,  although  the  amount  obtained  is  always  quite  small  (25  grams 
of  oil  from  5  kilograms  of  flowers,  according  to  Reymann"^.  It  is  a 
question  whether  the  tree  would  not  flourish,  for  example,  in  Algeria, 
where  already  so  many  exotic  perfume  plants  are  cultivated. 
According  to  Guibourt,  the  Macassar  oil,  which  was  at  one  time 
highly  prized  in  Europe  as  a  hair  oil,  is  cocoa  nut  oil  digested  with 
the  flowers  of  Cananga  odorata  and  Michelia  champaca,  and  colored 
yellow  by  means  of  curcuma.  In  India,  ointments  of  this  kind  have 
been  in  use  for  a  very  long  time. 
The  name  Cananga  is  found,  moreover,  also  in  Germany,  in  former 
times.  An  Oleum  destillatum  Canangce  is  mentioned  by  the  Leipsic 
apothecary  J.  H.  Linck,  under  einigen  neuen  Exoticis,^'  in  the 
"  Sammlung  von  Natur  und  Medicin-,  wie  audi  hierzn  gehorigen 
Kunst-  und  Literatur-Geschichten,  so  Anno  1719  in  Schlesien  und 
anderen  Liindern  begeben,"  Leipzig  and  Budissin,  1719.  As,  how- 
ever, the  fruit  of  the  same  tree,  which  was  sent  at  the  same  time  with 
this  Cananga  oil,  is  described  by  Linck  as  exceptionally  bitter,  it  can- 
not probably  here  refer  to  the  present  Cananga  odorata,  the  fruit  pulp 
of  which  is  emphatically  designated  by  Rumph  and  by  Blume  as 
^  Accordiug  to  information  furnished  by  Mr.  Reymaim,  there  are  annu- 
ally consumed  in  Paris,  Nizza  and  Grasse  about  200  kilograms,  in  London 
.about  50  kilograms,  and  as  much  in  Germanj^  (Leipsic,  Berlin,  Frankfurt). 
