546 
A  frican  Copaiba. 
r  Aru.  Jour  Pharm 
C  Sov.,lS93. 
dred  grammes  of  the  oil  was  dried  over  chloride  of  calcium,  and 
fractionally  distilled  with  the  following  result : 
The  unsuccessful  attempts  to  obtain  a  crystalline  hydrochloride 
by  passing  dry  hydrochloric  acid  gas  through  the  oil  have  been 
recorded  in  the  previous  note,  the  oil  only  becoming  wine-red  and 
letting  fall  a  non-crystalline  deposit.  Xo  crystalline  product  could 
be  obtained,  moreover,  by  passing  chlorine  through  the  oil  immersed 
in  a  freezing  mixture. 
The  dry  oil  yielded  on  fractionation  over  metallic  sodium  a  blue 
oil  boiling  at  26o  =  ,  and  agreeing  with  that  obtained  by  Brix  -  hrcs- 
bericht,  1 88 1 ,  p.  1028)  from  the  Maracaibo  variety.  It  may  be 
noted  that  this  blue  oil  can  only  be  obtained  from  the  perfectly  dry 
oil,  several  attempts  on  the  moist  oil  resulting  in  failure. 
Distilled  with  bichromate  of  potash  and  sulphuric  acid  a  bluish- 
green  oil  is  obtained  at  265     the  thermometer  falling  rapidly. 
The  original  oil  reduces  rapidly  and  powerfully  a  solution  of  gold 
chloride  in  chloroform  containing  I  per  cent,  of  absolute  alcohol, 
and  the  u  iodine  absorption !;  in  sixteen  hours  is  251-8. 
The  fraction  boiling  at  264-  C.  was  heated  for  twenty-four  hours 
in  the  manner  described  by  Wallach  (Abst.  '•Sesquiterpenes/' 
Pharm.  Journ.,  November  12,  p.  383)  with  glacial  acetic  acid, 
sulphuric  acid  and  water,  and  the  dark  resulting  liquid  subsequently 
distilled  in  a  current  of  steam.  From  no  fraction,  however,  on 
cooling  could  a  crystalline  hydrate  be  obtained.  From  the  fraction 
of  South  i\merican  copaiba  oil.  boiling  at  about  200c.  a  small  quan- 
tity of  a  crystalline  hydrate  was  obtained,  agreeing  in  properties 
with  the  sesquiterpene  hydrate  obtained  by  the  previously  men- 
tioned worker.  No  crystalline  halogen  compounds  could  be  obtained 
direct  from  that  fraction  of  the  oil. 
To  determine  whether  any  similarity  in  physiological  action 
exists  between  the  oils  from  the  African  oleoresin  and  those  hitherto 
imported  from  South  America  I  have  submitted  them  to  E.  Hurry 
Fenwick,  Esq.,  F.R.C.S.,  for  therapeutic  experiments. 
Below  260°  C, 
Nil. 
260-2650  C. 
265-2670  C. 
267-2700  c. 
270-275-  c. 
Residue,  . 
62 '5  grammes. 
9 '4 
7'4 
I5-9 
