Chemistry of Essential Oils

SANTALACE^ 189

WEST AUSTRALIAN OIL.

This oil is the product of one or more species of tree, being chiefly
derived from the wood of Fusanus spicatus. Several other species
are found in West Australia, but they are much less common than
Spicatus, which alone is used to any extent for distilling. This tree
was originally known as Santalum cygnorum. Although only a tree
of small dimensions, it forms an important factor in the timber in-
dustry of Western Australia. The species, as the author has seen it
growing in the interior of this colony, has a low depressed habit, and
is usually very branchy and heavily topped. It is generally from 12
to 20 ft. high, and from 6 to 10 ins. in diameter. The stems usually
weigh .from 1 to 6 cwt. It is found fairly well distributed in the
interior of the colony, except in the extreme south-west. It may be
seen growing fairly freely on the most barren sandy soil, where one
could not see a blade of grass nor a drop of water for miles round.
The greater part of this wood is exported to China, but one or two
santal oil distilleries have been started in the colony. The author
has examined four samples of oil distilled from either Fusanus
spicatus or from this tree with other species mixed, and found they
had the following characteristics :—

1.

2.

3.

4.

Specific Gravity.

-9650

-9644

-9632

-9643

KOH for Esters.

1-46

1-15

1-66

1-35

Iodine Absorption.
200-0
204-5
198-2
197-6
There was found only from 65 to 75 per cent, of alcohols in these
oUs, as against 90 per cent, in the Bast Indian oil. The optical
rotation is usually about + 5° to + 8°. The distillation water of this oil
contains traces of methyl alcohol, diacetyl and furfurol.
Claims that this oil can be rectified so as to yield an oil correspond-
ing with the requirements of the British Pharmacopoeia, have recently
been made. They are, of course, unfounded.

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN OIL.

This oil is distilled from Santalum preissianum, but it yields an oil

quite different to the ordinary santal-wood oil. It has a specific gravity

of about 1*02, and becomes solid when cooled.

Berkenheim

1

has isolated from this oil a solid alcoholic constituent of

the formula C 15 H 24 0, melting at 101° to 102°, and yielding crystalline esters.

WEST INDIAN OIL.

This oil is the product of a Venezuelan tree which has been identified

as belonging to the N.O. Eutaceae, but as the oil somewhat resembles

true santal-wood oils, it may be conveniently described here. Its

specific gravity is lower than that of the true santal oil, and it is far

more insoluble in alcohol. It is dextro-rotatory and contains much less

alcoholic constituents than does the oil of Santalum album. Five

samples gave the following figures :—

(^1) Jour. Oheni. Soc. (1893), ii. 666.