Advanced Techniques and Reference

the holes which consisted chiefly of borneol. By distillation with steam there were obtained, both from the leaves and from the trunk oils which, according to their behaviour on boiling (150 to 210° and 215 to 280° respectively), did not appear to contain borneol. But in both cases only a few cc. of oil were available, so that in our opinion a decidedly more favourable result may possibly be obtained if larger quantities are worked up. The constants given here are only those of the oil from the leaves: dogo 0,8585; [4]page + 2°29/. Caraway Oil. The tone of the Dutch caraway market is described as very quiet, and it is said that very few transactions have lately taken place. The young caraway cultivations had developed favourably by the autumn, in so far as the Northern caraway districts are concerned, and in Groningen, Friesland and North Holland their appearance could be characterised as “good”. The fields in South Holland and Zeeland appeared “fairly good”, but in North Brabant only “middling”; in the last-named province some areas cultivated had to be ploughed up again. In North Brabant and Zeeland the winter, which this time was very severe, has done great damage, so much so that in many cases half the fields must be turned over again and sown with rape seed. From North Holland, Groningen and Friesland no reports have been received as to how the cultivation has come through the winter, but it may be assumed that there also the con- sequences of the severe winter will be more or less visible. Although at first the area cultivated with caraway was at least as large as in 1905/6, a not unimportant falling-off will have to be taken into account for the coming harvest, which may probably soon find expression in higher prices. 1) Verslag omtrent de te Buitenzorg gevestigde technische Afdeelingen van het Departement van Landbouw 1905. Batavia, 1906, pp. 46 and 63. — 20 — Cardamom Oil, Ceylon. See under Terpinene, p. 135. Cassia Oil. The firmer tendency of the market which we announced in our last Report has since spread and finally an upward movement has set in, such as had not been witnessed for years for this article, which had been so long neglected. Above all, offers of 80/85 per cent. oil were for a time totally absent, and only a few weeks ago was it possible to obtain firm quotations for shipment from over there at the enormous figure of 5/6. Whether the upward race of the quotations must be really attributed to lack of supplies from the producing districts, or to speculative enterprise on the part of Chinese middlemen, is a matter on which opinions differ; on the strength of information received, though only meagre, we are inclined to accept the first-named view. Whether with the above price the highest limit has been reached is a question on which at present it would not be safe to express even conjectures. It is not surprising that under these conditions the demand for our 100 per cent. cinnamic aldehyde free from chlorine was very brisk. Although we have nearly trebled our production, we were not always able to meet the demand from the consumers, and at the present moment we are still behindhand with large orders for America. The advantages of this preparation over natural cassia oil are so well known that we need not enter again into details on this point. Saigon cinnamon, a cinnamon called after Saigon, the most important port of Cochin China, which in addition to Ceylon cinnamon is officinal in the American Pharmacopoeia has been examined by L. Rosenthaler?). According to its external habitus and its anatomical constitution, Saigon cinnamom is very closely allied to the Chinese kind; this applies very specially to the younger pieces. Rosenthaler concludes from this that Saigon cinnamon originates, if not from Cinnamomum cassia Bl. itself, at least from a very closely allied species. The bark has a very fine odour and taste, and contains about 2,1/, essential oil; it therefore belongs to the cinnamon varieties richest in oil. This is already shown by the fact that the interior, when pressed with a hard object, takes a greasy lustre from expressed essential oil, the same as the cut surfaces do when the bark is cut with a knife. Rosenthaler gives no details of the properties of the oil. Oil of Cassie blossoms. According to E. Wildeman*) Acacia Farnesiana (L.) Willd., which is so important for the French 1) Inaugural publication on occasion of the inauguration of the new Pharma- ceutical Institute of the Strassburg University. Strassburg, autumn 1906. 2) Publication de Etat Indépendant du Congo 1906. Notices sur des plantes utiles et intéressantes de la flore du Congo, II, Brussels, 1906, p. 105. — 24 blossom industry, is also found in the Congo Free State. Whether the plant is there originally indigenous, is uncertain. Welwitsch is of opinion that this species belongs to the flora indigenous to Angola, and for this reason it is not impossible that it also occurs in the Congo district. Acacia Farnesiana, as a matter of fact, is widely distributed; apart from tropical Africa, it is also found in Egypt, India, Australia, Hawaii, the Philippines, the West Indies, and North and South America. In some districts the gum produced by this plant is collected, and used instead of gum-arabic. Seeds, blossoms and bark are frequently recommended for medicinal purposes, and various parts of the plant are used in tanning and dyeing on account of their content of tannin. In the United States this acacia is often designated with the name Opoponax. In the South of France the plant is known under the names Cassier du Levant, Casillier de Farnese, or simply Cassier, and in favour- able positions it is cultivated there on a large scale. When the plants are three years old the blossom harvest com- mences in the South of France. Each plant is capable of yielding 500 g. blossoms which are gathered twice weekly in the months of September, October, November and occasionally December. In France and Algeria 150000 kilos cassie blossoms have been gathered during the last few years. Whilst in Northern India since many years cassie pomade is pre- pared from the blossoms of this acacia, in the real tropics it has never been attempted to utilise the blossoms of the Acacia Farnesiana, although in the author’s opinion the cultivation of this shrub could be tried there under certain conditions. With regard to the physical constants and composition of oil of acacia blossoms, we would refer to our Report of April 1904, p. 23, where we have described the properties of a cassie blossom oil ob- tained by us from Indian pomade (from Naini Tal). In an oil of acacia blossoms which we have meanwhile isolated in the same manner from French blossom extract, the following constants were as- certained: dys0 1,0575, @p — 0°30’, Mpg90 1,51500; acid no. 25,4, ester no. 229. The yield amounted to 5,65°/, of the extract. Cedar Leaf Oil. According to our previous observations!) the oil of cedar leaves of American commerce was never the oil from the leaves of Juniperus virginiana L., as in North America two totally different trees, Juniperus virginiana and Thuja occidentalis, are designated as “cedar”. A work by Hanson and Babcock?) on American oils 1) Report April 1894, 57; Comp. also Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, p. 278. %) Journ, Amer. chem. Soc. 28 (1906), 1198. — 28 — of conifers, contains one single statement on the cedar leaf oil of Juniperus virginiana; the authors found a specific gravity 0,900 (16°). Cinnamon Oil, Ceylon. The trade in this speciality of our firm was very brisk during the past half year, and although we had arranged for a large supply of cinnamon chips, we were not always able to meet the demand. Owing to the increasing demand for the crude material, also on the part of the spice industry, the prices soon hardened from 2d to 2%/,,d per lb. so that we could not avoid an advance in the quotations of our distillate. The following export statistics of the Chamber of Commerce in Colombo show the enormous increase in the exports of cinnamon chips: — 1906 2531614 lbs. 1901 1516083 Ibs. 1905 2325514 » 1900 1863406 ,, 1904 2368351 1899 1829127 ,, 1903 2253269 ,, 1898 1414165 ,, 1902 1763679 » 1897 1067051 ,, On the other hand, the export of cinnamon oil from Ceylon in the same period, has declined from 181536 ozs. to 158344 ozs. — a clear proof that the superiority of the European distillate over the Ceylon oil is beginning to be recognised by the consumers, We read in the Pharmazeutische Zeitung!) that the American physician Ross, on the strength of a practice extending over 16 years, recommends cinnamon oil as an excellent remedy against influenza. The dose is 10 to 12 drops every two hours, until the temperature is again normal. From that moment a dose of 10 drops three times daily for one or two days is sufficient. The essential oil from the bark of the trunk of Cinnamomum pedunculatum Nees (C. japonicum S. et Z.) known in Japan as “Yabu- nikkei”?), has been examined by S. Keimatsu and S.Asahina®). As might be expected the oil differed completely from ordinary cinnamon oil: d0,917; [¢]p — 280,54’ (— 4°40'?); acid no. 0; sap. no. 0; sap. no. after acetylation 84,6. The oil was rich in phellandrene (m. p. of the nitrite 110°) and contained also a small quantity of eugenol (m. p. of the benzoyl compound 69°), and methyl eugenol, which was identified by oxidation into veratric acid (m. p. 179°). Citronella Oil. The firm condition of this important article, which has gradually risen to about 1/11 cif. Hamburg, is in our 4) Pharm, Zig. Bl (1906), 1074. %) Not to be confounded with the Japanese cinnamon or cassia bark tree C. Loureirit Nees, known under the name “Nikkei”. Comp. Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, p. 391 and Report October 1904, 96. 3) The Oriental Druggist 1 (1906), No. 3. Yokohama. — 2 — opinion explained by the fact, that the production in Ceylon is not able to keep pace with the demand which increases from year to year. The exports from Ceylon were: — in 1904 1133068 Ibs. mn 1905 1309416 » » 1906 1212771 4 The year 1906 consequently closes with a deficiency of nearly 100000 Ibs. as compared with 1905, which became all the more felt, as New York was constantly on the market with orders, and not only rarely allowed the prices to come to rest, but helped to drive them up to a not inconsiderable extent in the course of a few weeks. Between October and December a certain dullness came over the market, and the prices fluctuated at first between 1/7 1/, cif. in October and 1/81/, in November and in December even for a time declined to 1/68/,. But this last quotation was clearly of a purely speculative character. At the beginning of January a brisk demand arose for consumption as well as for speculation, so that at the end of that month orders at 1/81/, to 1/9 cif. scarcely led to business. Since that time the prices have slowy advanced further up to their present level. Although the shipments from Ceylon in 1907, up to the end of February amounted to 137900 lbs. against 116517 lbs, in the same period of the previous year, the reports from over there are very pessimistic, and the exporters are unanimous in declaring that the supplies are too small and that we shall have to reckon on still higher prices. The trade in Java citronella oil has been completely paralysed by the speculative action of one interested party, as this person has secured almost the entire production at high prices. The bulk is intended for America, but we fear that the consumers are not parti- cularly edified by the tactics of driving up the prices without cause, which the party in question has adopted, With regard to the cultivation of citronella grass in Java, St. Smith) gives some interesting information based upon a visit to one of the large plantations there, which we will briefly reproduce. If the grass is planted in a good fertile soil, and has received plenty of rain, it grows rapidly and gives a good crop, which, with four cuts in every year, amounts to about 4,8 tons per acre, which means, for 10 acres, with an oil-content of the grass of 0,5°/,, a quantity of oil of 4,8 cwts. of a value of about @ 46.16.0. The grass has to be planted out again only after 12 years. As the cost of a distilling plant is also 1) Agricultural News, vol. 5, p. 335, acc. to Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1906, No. 8, p. 363. — 30 — not particularly heavy, Smith recommends the cultivation of the grass in Papua, in the same manner as in Java, namely between india rubber and cocoa nut trees. We have in our Reports!) repeatedly alluded to the difficulties which exist in an exact differentiation of the individual Andropogon or oil grasses, and which appear almost insuperable in view of the many varieties and transition forms. These difficulties have come to the front particularly in recent times, when the oils obtained from the grasses in question meet with an increasing amount. of interest, and when frequent trials are made to cultivate the grasses supplying the individual oils, both in their own habitat and also specially in other tropical countries. In view of the deficient knowledge of the individual grasses, such cultivation-trials have led to frequent disappointments, inasmuch as apparently identical plants yielded totally different oils. For this reason botanists have repeatedly endeavoured to do away with the existing contradictions, but up to the present without suc- ceeding in actually clearing up the question. With an industry worthy of acknowledgment, and even far more important results, Dr. Otto Stapf has now approached the solution of the problem; he has made a thorough study of the individual grasses, and has put down his observations and conclusions in a work entitled: “The Oil-Grasses of India and Ceylon”*). If — as Stapf himself emphasises — his work cannot lay claim to absolute com- pleteness, as further thorough observations are needed to make it so, yet what has been so far attained, clears up many questions which had hitherto remained unanswered, and it may be taken for granted that the uncertainty which has prevailed on this subject up to the present will soon disappear completely, the more so, as the impulse given by Stapf will no doubt induce many others to take up the study of the oil-grasses. It is to be hoped that Stapf’s work will have this practical result, that the oil-distillers will also acquire a more complete understanding of the individual varieties, and that more attention will be paid than hitherto to the working up of -a uniform plant-material. For his examinations Stapf has had at his disposal an, if not exhaustive, at least very voluminous observation-material, and this, as well as a thorough study of the individual grasses, have had a directly decisive effect on the results of Stapf’s work. The further elucidation of this question will probably be greatly assisted by the fact that Stapf has completely broken with the present nomenclature 4) Reports April 1908, 23; October 1904, 52; April 1905, 55. *) Published in the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1906, No. 8, p. 297. . — 3: - which has largely contributed to the confusion existing, and has classified the individual grasses in the following groups: — Genus Cymbopogon, with 10 species » — Veliveria et % » Andropogon, Most interesting is the detailed discussion of the individual species. Stapf enters here in detail into the history, the habitat, the botanical characteristics, synonyms and vernacular names of the various grasses, and moreover supplies details on the oils which come under consideration. Of these particulars we reproduce here only those which appear to us necessary for our purpose, and we refer to the original work especially with regard to the very voluminous historical part and the botanical details. 1. Cymbopogon Schoenanthus Spreng. (Synonyms: Andropogon Schoen- anthus L., A. laniger Desf., A. Iwarancusa subsp. laniger Hook. {.) Camel grass. This plant was known already in the earliest times, and was frequently employed for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. In the old pharmacopceias and herbalist’s books, it appears as Herba Schoenanthi, but other names were also in use for it, such, for example, as Juncus odoratus and Palea camelorum. The Arabian name often used is Jzkhir. As a characteristic desert-plant which is able to existewith the smallest possible supply of water, it is distributed over Northen Africa and Arabia, and it is also found in the Persian province of Kirman, where it grows at altitudes of 6000 feet and higher, and from South-Western. Afghanistan and North-Western Beluchistan, to the Punjab. ‘With regard to the essential oil contained in it (camel grass oil), comp. Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, p. 299. 2. Cymbopogon Iwarancusa Schult. (Syn. Andropogon Iwarancusa Jones). The grass, which, according to Blane, is identical with the Nardus Indica of the Ancients, is found along the extreme mountain-zone of the Indian provinces, and here prefers the neighbourhood of streams as it requires at least at intervals, a plentiful supply of water. The natives call it Terankus (fever-remedy) in consequence of its beneficial action in all kinds of fever!), The whole plant has a strongly aromatic odour, but particularly the roots, which also contain the therapeutically active con- stituents, and which have a burning and bitter taste when chewed. C. Lwarancusa differs from C. Schoenanthus (to which it is closely allied) by the stronger build, the long, flat, and comparatively broad leaves and the more strongly ramified panicles. At great altitudes, or in the dry parts of the Punjab, it becomes small and narrow-leaved, and then represents a transition-form to C. Schoenanthus. 1) For the rest, almost all the other species discussed here are employed for therapeutical purposes.