THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
SEPTEMBER,  iSgg. 
WOOD -TAR  CREOSOTE. 
By  Lyman  F.  Kebler. 
'  Research  Committee  B,  Pharmacopoeia  Revision. 
Creosote  is  a  complex  mixture  of  phenoloid  compounds,  the  pro- 
portions of  which  are  materially  influenced  by  the  kind  of  wood 
employed  for  distillation,  the  methods  resorted  to  for  purifying  and 
removing  the  creosote  from  the  distillate  and  the  amount  of  certain 
constituents  removed  from  the  creosote  proper,  by  fractional  distil- 
lation. 
The  above  mixture  of  compounds  consists  chiefly  of  several  homol- 
ogous series,  prominent  among  which  are  the  acid  methylic  esters 
of  catechol,  but  any  of  the  compounds  contained  in  the  following 
table  may  be  met  with. 
Names.1  Formula.  Boiling-Point. 
MONOHYDRIC  PHENOLS. 
Phenol,  carbolic  acid,  C6H5OH  1820  C. 
Paracreosol,  cresylic  acid,  C6H4(CH3)OH  2030  C. 
Xylol,  or  phloral,  C6H3(CH3)2'OH  2200  C. 
METHYL,  ESTERS  OF  DLHYDRLC  PHENOLS. 
Guaiacol  or  methyl  catecholate,  C6H4  j  oh^3  }  200°  C- 
Creosol  or  methyl  methyl-catecholate,     C6H3(CH3)  j  }    2190  C. 
Homocreosol,  or  dimethyl-guaiacol,  C6H2(CH3)2  j  qj^3  |  2300  C. 
Ccerulignol,  or  propyl-guaiacol,  C6H3(C3H7)  j  oh**3  }    2410  C. 
Creosote  is  generally  supposed  to  consist,  for  the  greater  part,  of 
1  After  Thorpe,  Diet,  of  Applied  Chemistry,  Vol.  I,  614. 
(409) 
