Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Dec,,  1883.  f 
Sophisticated  Oil  of  Cloves. 
611 
SOPHISTICATED  OIL  OF  CLOVES. 
By  G.  Spencer. 
Some  time  since,  having  begun  a  series  of  experiments  upon  essen- 
tial oils  with  ferric  chloride,  I  was  struck  with  the  green  coloration 
produced  with  a  few  samples  of  oil  of  cloves  that  came  under  my 
notice.  At  that  time  I  did  not  further  trouble,  but  mention  having 
been  made  of  the  same  thing  by  Herr  Beckurts  in  the  Pharm.  Centralh., 
xxiv,  377,  a  resume  of  which  appears  in  "  The  Month,"  I  determined 
to  repeat  his  experiments  on  a  sample  obtained  for  retail  purposes  a 
short  time  ago,  with  exactly  the  same  results,  viz.,  yellowish  in  color, 
very  weak  aromatic  taste so  weak,  indeed,  that  shaking  the  bottle 
and  placing  the  stopper  on  the  tongue  did  not  seem  one  half  so  pun- 
gent as  biting  an  ordinary  clove,  "  with  odor  exactly  that  of  true  oil 
of  cloves.''  I  found  the  specific  gravity  to  be  only  1-02  instead  of 
1*03  or  as  it  should  be,  according  to  the  German  Pharmacopoeia  1*041 
to  1-061. 
When  exposed  to  bromine  vapor  a  deep  black  was  produced,  but  no 
blue  nor  violet.  With  ferric  chloride  a  green  coloration  took  place, 
with  perhaps  a  trace  of  blue  at  the  line  of  juncture  produced  by  care- 
fully pouring  the  oil  of  cloves"  into  a  solution  of  ferric  chloride  in 
alcohol,  but  which  entirely  disappeared  on  shaking.  By  distilling  a  por- 
tion and  carefully  treating  the  distillate  with  KHO,  and  afterv/ards 
with  argentic  nitrate,  the  latter  was  reduced  and  a  resplendent  mirror 
formed,  proving  the  presence  of  a  formate.  That  left  in  the  retort 
was  of  a  dark  brown  color,  treacly  appearance,  and  a  peculiar  faint 
unpleasant  odor.  This  treated  with  FcgClg  gave  a  much  deeper 
green  than  the  oil  of  cloves."  Treated  with  KHO  it  was  only  par- 
tially saponifiable,  leaving  a  pinkish-buif  deposit,  but  the  odor  of 
oloves  to  a  large  extent  was  restored. 
It  seems  to  be  a  mixture  of  genuine  oil  of  cloves,  with  a  compound 
belonging  to  the  creasol  class,  as  the  latter  gives  the  same  coloration 
with  Fe2C]g.  All  pharmacists  should  examine  what  they  now  have 
and  receive  with  caution  any  new  samples  into  stock,  as  the  kind  above 
referred  to  came  from  a  first-class  London  house,  and  in  all  probability 
has  been  in  the  market  over  six  months,  it  being  about  that  time  since 
I  first  noticed  the  green  coloration  with  ferric  chloride. — Phar.  Jour, 
Trans.,  Sept.  1883,  p.  184. 
