Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
Mar.,  1881.  j 
Ylang  -  Ylang  Oil. 
127 
sweetish.  Furthermore,  an  Oleum  Canangse,  Camel  straw  oil,  held  a 
place,  in  1765,  in  the  tax  of  Bremen  and  Verden.  It  may  remain 
undecided  whether  this  oil  was  really  derived  from  camel  straw,  from 
the  beautiful  grass  Andropogon  laniger. 
From  a  chemical  standpoint,  the  Cananga  oil  has  become  of  interest 
through  the  information  furnished  by  Gal  that  it  contains  benzoic 
acid,  and  without  doubt  in  the  form  of  a  compound  ether.  As  well 
as  the  author  remembers  the  literature  of  the  volatile  oils  at  the 
moment,  this  occurrence  of  an  ether  of  benzoic  acid  in  nature  is  an 
isolated  one  (not  considering  Peru  balsam  and  Tolu  balsam j,  although 
of  itself  it  cannot  be  surprising,  and  presumably  will  be  often  detected. 
The  author  induced  Mr.  Adolf  Convert  to  examine  the  Ylang- Ylang 
oil  in  this  direction.  The  oil  does  not  change  litmus  paper  moistened 
with  alcohol;  at  170°C.  a  small  portion  distilled  over,  but  the  mer- 
cury rose  gradually  to  290°C.,  and  at  a  still  higher  temperature  decom- 
position took  place.  That  the  portions  which  passed  over  below  290°C. 
had  a  strongly  acid  reaction  pointed  already  to  the  presence  of  com- 
pound ethers.  Mr.  Convert  boiled  10  grains  of  the  oil  with  20  grains 
of  alcohol  and  1  gram  of  caustic  potassa  for  one  day  in  a  flask  pro- 
vided with  an  inverted  condenser.  The  alcohol  was  finally  removed 
by  distillation,  the  residue  supersaturated  with  dilute  sulphuric  acid, 
and  together  with  much  water  subjected  to  distillation  until  the  distil- 
late scarcely  show^ed  an  acid  reaction.  The  liquid  which  ha  A  passed 
over  was  neutralized  with  barium  carbonate,  and  the  filtrate  concen- 
trated, whereupon  it  furnished  crystals  which  were  recognized  as  nearly 
pure  acetate.  The  acid  residue,  which  contained  the  potassium  sul- 
phate, was  then  shaken  with  ether ;  after  the  evaporation  of  the  latter 
there  remained  a  crvstalline  mass  of  an  acid  reaction,  which  assumed  a 
violet  color  with  ferric  chloride.  This  reaction,  which  is  probably  to 
be  attributed  to  a  phenol,  was  not  shown  after  the  crystalline  mass  had 
been  recrystallized  from  boiling  water ;  the  aqueous  solution  of  the 
purified  crystalline  scales  then  gave  with  ferric  chloride  simply  a  slight 
flesh-colored  precipitate.    The  crystals  melted  at  120°  C. 
For  the  confirmation  that  the  substance  was  benzoic  acid,  Mr.  Con- 
vert boiled  the  same  with  water  and  oxide  of  silver,  and  dried  the 
scales  obtained  on  cooling  over  sulphuric  acid.  0*0312  gram  of  the 
ciystals  gave  upon  combustion  0'0147  gram  of  silver,  or  47*1  per  cent.; 
benzoate  of  silver  contains  46*6  per  cent,  of  metal;  the  cryt^tals  were 
accordingly,  in  fact,  benzoate  of  silver.    For  the  separation  of  the 
