240 
ON RICINOLEIC ACID 
. ART. LII. — ON RICINOLEIC ACID. 
By L. SvANBKRGj AND G. KoLMODIN. 
Castor oil was saponified with caustic potash and the 
soap decomposed with muriatic acid ; the fatty acids were 
entirely freed from chloride of potassium and glycerine by 
washing with water, and were then exposed to a tempera- 
ture of 32° to 20°, when the ricinostearic acid and the other 
acids separated, and could be removed by filtration at this 
low temperature. What passed through the filter was 
mixed with caustic ammonia, but not in sufficient quanity 
to dissolve the whole of the fatty acid. The ammonia soap 
was precipitated with chloride of barium, and the baryta 
salt purified by recrystallization from its solution in alcohol 
as long as the crystals exhibited any difference in the 
amount of baryta. 
In the analysis of the baryta salt, which had been pre- 
viously dried in vacuo over sulphuric acid and had been 
crystallized five times from an alcoholic solution, we ob- 
tained 20.80 per cent, baryta. As the salt might possibly 
be an acid one, it was digested for several hours with 
hydrate of baryta, after which it was again several times 
recrystallized from alcohol. A salt which had been recrys- 
tallized nine times furnished 20.78 baryta, and the atomic 
weight according to this is 3639.18. 
The ricinoleate of baryta gave on analysis — 
Carbon, 
58.776 
36 
59.157 
Hydrogen, 
8.964 
33 
9.099 
Oxygen, 
11.480 
5 
J 0.947 
Baryta, 
20.780 
1 
20 897 
which agrees with the formula BaO + C 36 H 33 O 5 . The 
composition of the anhydrous acid is according to analysis 
and calculation — 
Found. Calculated. 
Carbon, 74.193 74.784 
Hydrogen, 11.418 11.3S9 
Oxygen. 14.389 13-827 
