Am.  Jour.  Pbarln.) 
November,  1911.  / 
New  Essential  Oils. 
S3S 
arguta  Benth. ;  Ocinium  crispum  Thunb.,  N.  O.  Labiatse),  which  is 
known  in  Japan  as  Shiso  "  and  of  which  the  leaves  are  used  as  a 
vegetable  and  a  spice,  contains  an  essential  oil  of  which  we  recently 
received  a  sample  from  Yokohama.  The  oil  was  mobile,  pale-yellow 
to  greenish,  of  a  peculiar  hay-like  odor,  and  possessed  the  following 
constants:  di5°  0,9265,  aD  —  90°,  noaoo  1,49835,  soluble  in  0,3  vols, 
and  more  of  90  per  cent,  alcohol.  It  reacted  both  with  acid  and  with 
neutral  sodium  bisulphite,  50  per  cent,  of  an  aldehyde  being  obtain- 
able by  this  reaction.  The  odor  of  the  aldehyde  reminded  somewhat 
of  cuminic  aldehyde,  but  in  its  properties  it  differed  altogether  from 
that  body,  as  was  evident,  for  example,  from-  the  fact  that  it  reacted 
with  neutral  bisulphite  of  sodium.  A  sample  was  carefully  purified 
from  the  sulphite  compound  and  distilled  first  with  steam  and  after- 
wards in  vacuo  under  4,5  mm.  press.  This  sample  was  found  to 
possess  the  following  constants:  b.  p.  91°  (4,5  mm.),  104°  (9  mm.), 
235  to  237°  (750  mm.),  dooo  0,9645,  di^o  0,9685,  a©  —  146°,  [a]D  — 
150,7°,  nDoo°  1,50693.  The  oxime,  which  was  also  Isevo rotatory, 
melted  at  102°,  the  phenylhydrazone  at  107.5°.  The  aldehyde  was 
oxidizable  into  the  corresponding  acid  both  by  moist  oxide  of  silver 
and  with  Beckmann's  chromic  acid  solution.*  It  is  almost  insolu- 
ble in  water  but  readily  soluble  in  almost  all  organic  solvents.  Re- 
crystallized  from  dilute  alcohol  it  forms  deHcate  white  scales,  m.  p. 
130°.  So  far,  our  attempts  to  elucidate  the  chemical  constitution 
of  the  aldehyde  have  led  to  no  result. 
In  connection  with  the  above  we  wish  to  make  a  brief  reference 
to  an  oil  which  is  of  special  interest  because  it  contains  a  dextro- 
rotatory variety  of  the  aldehyde  described  above.  A  sample  of  wood 
which  was  sent  to  us  some  time  ago  under  the  name  of  spurious 
camphor  wood"  (faux  camphrier),  but  to  the  botanical  derivation 
of  which  we  were  unfortunately  not  able  tO'  obtain  any  clue,  yielded 
upon  distillation  2,06  per  cent,  of  a  pale  yellow  oil  with  an  odor 
similar  to  that  of  the  oil  from  Perilla  nankinensis  just  referred  to, 
di5°  0,9580;  ai> -f  98°  10';  udsoo  1,49695;  soluble  in  2,5  vols,  and 
more  of  70  per  cent,  alcohol.  The  oil  contained  75  per  cent,  of  an 
aldehyde  which  reacted  both  with  neutral  and  with  acid  sodium 
bisulphite,  and  otherwise  agreed  in  every  respect  with  the  aldehyde 
contained  in  the  oil  of  Perilla  nankinensis,  except  that  it  rotated  in 
the  opposite  direction.  The  properties  of  the  aldehyde  isolated  with 
sodium  bisulphite  were  as  follows:  b.  p.  234  to  236°  (743  mm.), 
98  to  100°  (7  mm.),  diB°  0.9730,  aD  +  137°  40',  UDao*  1,50802,  The 
*Liebig's  Annalen,  250  (1889),  325. 
