118 
Ccerulignol. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  1884. 
CCERULIGNOL:  REICHENBACH'S  OXIDIZING 
PRINCIPLE. 
By  P.  Pastrovich. 
The  high-boiling  portions  of  beech-tar  oil  are  characterized  by  the 
splendid  blue  color  which  they  give  with  chloride  of  lime,  or  in  alco- 
holic solution  with  baryta- water.  The  separation  of  the  body  to  which 
this  color  is  due — called  by  Reichenbach  the  "  oxidizing  principle  " — 
from  the  other  constituents  of  the  tar-oil,  is  very  difficult,  but  is  best 
effected  by  boiling  the  oil  for  some  time  with  the  weakest  acetic  acid 
capable  of  dissolving  it,  and  pouring  the  resulting  solution  into  a  large 
quantity  of  water,  wrhereby  the  oil  is  separated,  while  a  nitrogenous 
body  remains  in  solution.  The  "blue  oil,"  or  Coerulignol,  thus  puri- 
fied, distils  between  240°  and  241°;  it  is  nearly  colorless,  has  a  not 
unpleasant  creosote-like  odor  and  burning  aromatic  taste ;  sp.  gr.  = 
1*05645  at  15°.  It  dissolves  very  sparingly  in  cold,  more  readily  in 
hot  water,  and  in  almost  any  quantity  in  alcohol,  ether,  and  acetic  acid, 
forming  neutral  solutions.  It  is  colored  red  by  strong  sulphuric  acid, 
and  when  mixed  with  potash-lye,  becomes  dark  colored  on  exposure  to 
the  air.  With  chloride  of  lime,  and  in  alcoholic  solution  with  baryta- 
water,  it  produces  the  splendid  blue  color  already  mentioned.  Its 
alcoholic  solution  is  colored  green  by  alcoholic  ferric  chloride;  its 
aqueous  solution  gives  a  fine  tannine  color  with  aqueous  ferric  chloride. 
Cserulignol  gives  by  analysis  numbers  leading  to  the  formula 
Cl0H14O2,  which  is  confirmed  by  the  vapor-density  (5* 6 9-5" 84  by  V. 
Meyer's  method;  5*76  by  calculation).  By  prolonged  heating  in 
sealed  tubes  at  140°  with  excess  of  strong  hydrochloric  acid,  it  is 
resolved  into  methyl  chloride  and  a  body  which  when  purified  by 
repeated  crystallization  from  water  and  finally  from  benzene,  is  found 
to  have  the  composition  C9H1202, — its  formation,  represented  by  the 
equation  C10H14O3  -j-  HC1  =  CH3C1  -j-  C9H1202,  being  exactly  analogous 
to  that  of  the  compound  C9H1203  from  methylic  propylpyrogallate. 
The  solution  of  this  body  is  colored  green  by  ferric  chloride,  and  when 
mixed  with  alkalis,  gradually  acquires  a  darker  color  in  contact  with 
the  air. 
Acetocoerulignol,  C12H1603  =  C10H13AcO2,  formed  by  boiling  coerulig- 
nol (3  parts)  for  two  days  with  one  part  of  acetic  anhydride,  was  once 
obtained  in  fan-shaped  groups  of  crystals,  but  mostly  as  a  viscid  nearly 
