48 
Notes  on  Essential  Oils. 
Am.  Jour.  Fharni. 
Jan.,  1891. 
Massoy  bark  Oil. — The  raw  material  is  imported  from  German  Guinea.  An 
import  of  worthless  bark  is  reported  from  Java,  devoid  of  odor  and  of  another 
botanical  origin. 
R.  Woy  reported  a  new  terpene,  massoyene,  as  contained  in  the  oil  (see 
Amer.  Jour.  Pharmacy,  1890,  296).  Prof.  Wallach  has  now  shown  this  to 
be  erroneous  (Liebig's  Annalen,  vol.  258,  340).  The  so-called  massoyene  is  a 
mixture  of  not  less  than  three  distinct  terpen es,  namely,  pinene,  limonene 
and  dipentene. 
Mustard  Oil. — The  new  German  Pharmacopoeia,  having  again  rightly  nega- 
tived the  substitution  of  the  artificial  product  by  recognition  of  the  natural  oil 
alone,  reasons  for  the  presence  of  the  former  in  pharmacy  are  finally  removed, 
and  it  is  hoped  that  continued  endeavors  to  find  a  distinctive  test  may  be  suc- 
cessful. 
Myrtle  Oil. — Myrtol  obtained  from  this  oil  is  not  a  simple  body,  but  a  mix- 
ture of  pinene,  cineol  and  dipentene  boiling  between  1600  and  1800  C.  It  is 
recommended  for  its  valuable  antizymotic  and  deodorant  properties,  being 
useful  to  disinfect  the  lungs,  as  through  this  organ  it  is  chiefly  excreted. 
Peppermint  Oils. — Dr.  Ed.  Polenske  has  observed  that  peppermint  oil 
which  had  stood  for  some  time  in  sunlight  lost  the  power  of  giving  color  reac- 
tions with  acids  (see  Amer.  Jour.  Pharmacy,  1S90,  page  491).  The  III  Dutch 
Pharmacopoeia  requires  as  a  test  for  the  identity  of  peppermint  oil  that  a  mix- 
ture of  5  drops  with  20  drops  of  glacial  acetic  acid  shall  gradually  develop  a 
dark  blue  color  with  a  copper  colored  fluorescence.  It  has  been  observed  that 
the  formation  of  the  colored  compound  was  due  to  oxidation,  and  did  not  occur 
when  air  was  excluded.  If  a  small  bottle  is  completely  filled  with  the  mixture 
of  acetic  acid  and  oil,  and  closed  with  a  cork,  the  mixture  becomes  scarcely 
perceptibly  blue,  and  the  color  does  not  deepen  in  intensity  after  several  days. 
If  air  is  admitted,  the  change  gradually  takes  place.  It  is  curious  that  Japan 
peppermint  oil  gives  no  color  reaction  or  only  to  a  very  slight  extent. 
The  new  German  and  the  Austria^  Pharmacopoeias  require  that  pepper- 
mint oil  shall  form  a  clear  solution  with  diluted  alcohol.  To  this  condition 
the  Mitcham  peppermint  oil  answers,  while  the  requirement  of  the  Dutch 
Pharmacopoeia,  which  only  prescribes  complete  solubility  in  90  per  cent, 
alcohol,  admits  the  American  oil  also. 
Pepper  Oil. — Phellandrene  is  proven  to  be  a  constituent  of  this  oil  by  the 
formation  of  a  solid  nitrite  on  adding  sodium  nitrite  to  a  solution  of  the  oil 
in  glacial  acetic  acid. 
Rose  Oil. — Messrs.  Schimmel  report  favorably  upon  the  resul  s  of  their  experi- 
ment of  producing  otto  of  rose  in  Germany,  and  the  supply  of  superior  oil  in  the 
future  is  guaranteed.  Twenty-three  thousand  kilos  of  freshly-gathered  roses 
yielded  4^  kilos  of  otto.  The  adulteration  of  the  Turkish  rose  oil  with 
geranium  oil  is  still  carried  on  to  a  large  extent.  The  government  has 
forbidden  the  import  of  this  oil,  but  it  continues  to  be  smuggled  into  the 
country.  Rose  oil,  mechanically  freed  from  stearopten,  is  now  an  article  of 
the  trade.  It  was  observed,  during  the  purification  of  a  large  lot  of  stearopten 
from  Turkish  rose  oil,  that  when  distilled  in  vacuo  no  constant  boiling  point 
could  be  obtained,  and  that  the  lower  boiling  fractions  remained  liquid  at 
normal  temperatures,  while  those  boiling  at  higher  temperatures  immediately 
