Ami  j0Mr'1Sarm-  I         Australian  Sandalwood  Oil.  '  279 
April,  1921.       )  '  ■ 
Perth.  Certain  reports  have  even  been  made  that  the  Western 
Australian  oil  was  found  to  possess  the  properties  of  the  true 
sandalwood  oil  without  its  deleterious  effects.  These  reports  were 
evidently  considered  seriously,  for  Western  Australian  authorities 
referred  the  matter  to  the  Imperial  Institute  for  complete  tests,  so 
that  action  might  be  taken  to  have  the  oil  recognized  by  the  British 
Pharmacopoeia.  The  report  now  before  us  intimates  that  "the 
product  has  been  investigated  at  the  Imperial  Institute  with  a  view 
of  determining  its  constituents.  Experiments  have  also  been  made 
regarding  the  possibility  of  preparing  from  the  Australian  oil  a 
product  which  would  respond  to  the  constants  required  by  the^ 
British  Pharmacopoeia."  Thus  the  investigators  have  had  to  con- 
fine themselves  to  the  points  of  physical  and  chemical  differences 
between  the  East  Indian  and  Western  Australian  oils,  and  they 
wisely  place  the  onus  of  recognition  of  the  latter  as  a  medical 
substitute  for  the  Mysore  product  upon  the  therapeutic  effects.  It 
should  be  noted  that  Australian  sandalwood  oil  is  mainly  derived 
from  Fusanus  spicatus,  and  the  genus  Fusanus  is  recognized  by 
well-known  botanical  authorities  so  closely  to  resemble  the  genus 
Santalum  that  it  may  almost  be  regarded  as  identical  and  as  merely 
a  synonym,  as  is  mentioned  in  the  Kew  Index.  In  testing  the  con- 
stants of  the  oil  it  was  found  that  none  of  them,  with  the  exception 
of  the  refractive  index,  falls  within  the  range  given  by  the  B.  P. 
for  the  official  sandalwood  product.  An  interesting  result  was 
obtained  in  fractionation  experiments.  The  oil  was  distilled  under 
12  mm.  pressure  in  an  atmosphere  of  carbon  dioxide,  and  a  fraction 
boiling  at  I30°-I50°  C,  amounting  to  15  per  cent,  of  the  oil,  was 
collected.  The  residual  oil  was  again  distilled,  and  a  further  frac- 
tion, boiling  at  I40°-I50°  C,  under  7  mm.  pressure,  equivalent  to 
an  additional  15  per  cent.,  expressed  on  the  original  oil,  was  re- 
moved. The  effect  was,  curiously  enough,  to  lower  the  percentage 
of  total  alcohols  instead  of  increasing  it.  The  explanation  given  is 
that  probably  the  alcohol  or  alcohols  had  been  partially  decomposed 
on  boiling,  with  the  production  of  sesquiterpenes.  An  additional 
result  of  this  method  of  distillation  is  that  the  residual  oil  is  dextro- 
rotatory (unlike  Santalum  album  oil,  which  is  lsevo-rotatory) .  A 
sample  of  East  Indian  oil  distilled  under  the  same  conditions  did 
not  suffer  similar  decomposition.  The  next  step  was  to  subject 
the  Western  Australian  sandalwood  oil  to  steam  distillation,  and 
this  method  was  more  successful,  the  results  showing  that  the 
