28 
The  Chemistry  of  Sassafras. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     January,  1899. 
oils  which  possess  abnormal  (i.  e.,  too  high  or  too  low)  specific 
gravity.  Distillers  frequently  contest  the  accuracy  of  the  determi- 
nations of  the  specific  gravity  of  their  oils  with  great  indignation, 
for  they  know  that  the  samples  with  differing  specific  gravities  were 
taken  from  the  same  tank  of  oil.  The  simple  explanation  for  this 
is,  that  oil  of  sassafras  consists  chiefly  of  a  crystallizable  body, 
safrol,  which  possesses  a  specific  gravity  as  high  as  rio8  ;  if  this 
body  crystallizes  from  the  oil  during  the  cold  winter  months,  it  forms, 
after  remelting  in  warmer  weather,  a  heavy  layer  at  the  bottom  of 
the  container,  which  becomes  mixed  with  the  bulk  of  the  oil  only 
very  slowly.  Samples  drawn  from  the  top  of  such  a  container  will, 
therefore,  have  a  very  different  specific  gravity  from  that  drawn  from 
the  bottom  of  the  same  vessel.  For  this  reason  oil  of  sassafras 
should  always  be  well  mixed  before  drawing  it  off,  if  it  has  been 
exposed  to  such  low  temperatures  as  to  crystallize. 
If  large  quantities  of  oil  of  sassafras  are  kept  cold  for  a  longer 
period,  safrol  will  crystallize  out  in  very  beautiful,  strongly  refractory, 
colorless  prisms,  which  sometimes  attain  a  length  of  more  than  I 
foot,  and  a  diameter  of  i  inch  or  more.  By  repeated  treatment  in 
a  freezing  mixture,  with  proper  fractional  distillation  of  the  remain, 
ing  liquid  parts,  about  80  per  cent,  of  pure  safrol  can  be  isolated 
from  the  oil.  Pure  safrol  is  an  optically  inactive,  colorless  liquid 
congealing  at  8°  C,  boiling  at  2320  C,  and  possesses  a  pure  agreeable 
sassafras  odor. 
Its  chemical  composition  is  C10H10O2 ;  and,  extended  chemical 
study  has  proven  that  it  is  the  methylene  ether  of  an  allyl-pyro 
catechin : 
CH2  =  CH.CH2 
C 
HC/\CH 
Safrol :  |  | 
hcxvc.o 
I 
CO— CH2 
DERIVATIVES  OF  SASSAFRAS  OIL. 
If  treated  with  oxidizing  agents,  it  yields,  among  other  products, 
by  oxidation  of  its  allyl  to  the  aldehydic  group  CHO,  a  substance 
that  is  highly  appreciated  in  perfumery,  the  well-known  piperonal 
