Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
February,  1900.  J 
Editorial  Notes  and  Comments. 
97 
(b)  Aldehydes  :  Benzaldehyde,  salicylic  aldehyde,  anisic  aldehyde,  cinnamic 
aldehyde,  citral,  citronellal,  cuminic  aldehyde,  vanillin,  heliotropin. 
(c)  Ketones  :  Carvone,  methyl-heptenone,  pulegone,  methyl-nonylketone, 
menthone,  thujone,  camphor. 
(d)  Phenols  :  Eugenol,  thymol  and  carvacrol. 
(e)  Cineol. 
Of  these  bodies,  menthol  and  camphor  are  less  soluble  than  the  others. 
(2)  Less  soluble,  or  insoluble  : 
(a)  Sesquiterpene  alcohols  :  Santalol. 
(b)  Phenol  derivatives  :  Ahethol,  safrol,  apiol. 
(c)  Esters  of  borneol,  geraniol,  linalool  and  menthol. 
"  Finally,  the  author  has  examined  a  series  of  essential  oils  for  their  relative 
solubility,  and  recommends  this  property  to  be  used  in  testing  the  purity  of 
oils,  a  method  which  may  be  practical  in  certain  cases.  His  suggestion,  to  use 
the  process  referred  to  for  the  preparation  of  oxygenous  derivatives  of  oils, 
would  probably  not  be  technically  possible,  -because  of  its  great  cost  and  the 
insufficient  purity  of  the  products  obtained.  For  although  hydrocarbons  are 
practically  insoluble  in  a  pure  salicylate  solution,  they  are  absorbed  therein 
in  a  larger  degree,  if  that  solution  already  contains  oxygenous  bodies  in  state 
of  solution. 
"  The  most  interesting  result  of  Duyk's  research  is  the  establishment  of  the 
fact  that  alcohols  are  much  more  soluble  than  their  esters.  As  an  instance  we 
may  mention  Bergamot  oil,  of  which,  under  direct  treatment,  12  per  cent,  was 
absorbed  by  the  salicylate  solution,  and  after  saponification,  35  per  cent.  The 
difference  of  23  per  cent,  represents  linalool,  which  was  present  in  the  oil  as 
linalyl  acetate.  Saponification  had  shown  the  oil  to  contain  31*5  per  cent,  of 
linalyl  acetate,  equal  to  2475  per  cent  of  linalool. 
"Although  we  do  not  implicitly  share  Duyk's  expectations  in  the  practical 
advantages  of  the  sodium  salicylate  process,  we  believe  that  it  may  play  a 
useful  part  in  special  cases,  as  well  as  in  the  scientific  examination  of  essential 
oils." 
EDITORIAL  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS. 
Pharmacy. — The  question  of  the  commercial  purity  of  asafetida  has  been 
the  subject  of  some  interesting  discussion  in  Great  Britain  as  the  result  of  a 
paper  on  this  subject  read  by  Mr.  Moore,  at  the  Society  of  Public  Analysts. 
The  B  P.  requires  that  asafetida  shall  yield  not  less  than  65  per  cent,  of  mat- 
ter soluble  in  alcohol  and  shall  not  yield  more  than  10  per  cent,  of  ash 
when  incinerated.  C.  G.  Moore  and  Dr.  Martin  1  recently  examined  twelve 
samples  of  the  gum  resin,  and  found  that  the  percentage  soluble  in  alcohol 
ranged  from  14  to  39  and  the  ash  from  26  to  63.  Inasmuch  as  samples  could 
be  had  that  gave  only  7  per  cent,  of  ash,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
sophistication  of  asafetida  was  intentional  by  those  who  collected  the  drug, 
Mr.  Moore  further  claimed  that  the  requirements  of  the  B.P.  were  too  high 
unless  steps  could  be  taken  to  raise  the  standard  of  the  commercial  article.  In 
1Chem.  and  Drug.,  1899,  p.  953. 
