Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
j     Lactic  Acid  Ester  of  Santalol,  etc. 
337 
July,  1911. 
Roots  
Jugpokals  . 
Ain  Chiltas 
about  4.34% 
,    "  2.60% 
"  The  oil  is  partly  brought  to  market  at  Udipi  and  partly  at 
Mangalore.  Almost  all  the  oil  is  shipped  by  steamer  to  Bombay, 
whence  it  is  exported  to  the  Persian  Gulf  and  to  China. 
"  It  hardly  needs  to  be  pointed  out  that  under  the  primitive 
conditions  of  distillation  wliich  have  been  described,  it  is  impossible 
to  obtain  any  really  good  sandalwood  oil.  Owing  to  the  prolonged 
duration  of  the  distilling  process,  decomposition-products  must 
necessarily  be  formed,  which  must  injuriously  affect  the  quality  of 
the  oil  and  be  equally  unfavorable  to  its  color  and  odor." 
Santalol,  in  two  isomeric  forms,  occurs  as  the  alcohol  of  the 
East  India  sandalwood  oil,  and  is  recognized  by  all  therapeutists  as 
the  chief  active  component  of  this  oil.  The  older  pharmacopoeias 
have  been  content  to  establish  a  standard  based  on  the  specific 
gravity  and  its  solubility  in  alcohol,  but  the  present  U.S. P.  requires 
90%  of  santalol  and  states  that  the  oil  is  laevogyrate — its  angle  of 
rotation  should  not  be  less  than  —  16°  nor  more  than  —  20°  in 
100  Mm.  tube,  at  a  temperature  of  25°  C.  This  differentiates  the  true 
oil  of  the  Santaluin  album  (N.O.  Santalaceae)  from  those  derived 
from  species  of  sandalwood  or  adulterated  with  cedar  and  other 
spurious  oils. 
Chapoteaut,  in  1879,  read  a  paper  before  the  Paris  Societe  de 
Chimie,  and  was  the  first  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  sandal- 
wood oil  was  composed  chiefly  of  alcohols,  from  which  he  was  able 
to  make  a  series  of  esters  with  appropriate  acid  anhydrides.  The 
empirical  formula  of  the  santalol  he  then  referred  to,  he  determined 
to  be  Ci.r.HooO.  He  also  isolated  another  body,  to  which  he  ascribed 
the  formula  C^-li^^^y  ^^^^  these  findings  were  verified  by  Chapman 
&  Burgess  (Proceedings  of  the  Chemical  Society,  London).  Parry 
followed  up  Chapoteaut's  work  some  years  later,  and  Continental 
chemists  have  since  shown  that  the  pure  oil  is  chiefly  composed  of 
a  mixture  of  tlie  santalols  together  with  two  isomeric  sescjuiterpene 
alcohols.  Guerbet  speaks  of  an  alpha-  and  beta-santalene,  which 
both  combine  slowly  with  glacial  acetic  acid  when  heated  in  sealed 
tubes.  The  hydrochlorides  of  santalol  Cir,H242  HCL,  have  an  optical 
rotation  in  an  opposite  direction  to  the  original  sesquiterpenes,  that 
of  the  alpha-santalcnc  hydrochloride  being  6°  i/,  and  that  of  beta- 
santalene  hydrochloride  8°.    Alpha-santalcne  gives  only  one  crystal- 
