Chemistry of Essential Oils

(Tuis.) #1

LABIATE 257


1. 2.


Specific gravity 0-9263 0'926
Optical rotation - 6° 31' - 22° 23'
Saponification value 13*9 8
„ (after acetylation).. 38-9 36
The oil contains about 75 per cent, of eucalyptol.
Salvia sclarea also yields an oil with a highly aromatic odour, re-
calling that of ambergris. It is known commercially as clary oil or
muscatel sage.
French oil of clary has the following characters :—
Specific gravity 0-895 to 0*930
Optical rotation - 10° „ - 63°
Refractive index. 1-4640 „ 1-4750
Ester value 110 „ 206
Esters as linalyl acetate 38 to 73 per cent.
It is soluble, in 2 volumes of 90 per cent, alcohol.
German clary oil has the following characters :—
Specific gravity 0-910 to 0'960
Optical rotation - 25° „ - 48a
Ester value 18 „ 160
It is soluble in 2 volumes of 90 per cent, alcohol.
Pinene, cineol, and linalol have been isolated from this oil.
Salvia mellifera (Eamona stachyoides) is a labiate plant found in
Southern California, and known as black sage. Eabak
*
first examined
the oil which he obtained to the extent of 0*75 per cent, of the green
flowering plant. He found the oil to have the following characters :—
Specific gravity at 24° 0-9144
Optical rotation + 30-2°
Refractive index at 24° 1-4682
Acid value 2
Ester „ 2-5
„ „ (after acetylation) 27-1
Eabak detected ^-camphor, cineol, pinene, theyone, and borneol in
the oil, as well as traces of free formic acid, and formic and acetic acids
in the form of esters.
Burke and Scalione^2 have also examined the oil, obtaining 0'9 per
cent, from the leaves and twigs. The oil had the following characters :—
Specific gravity at 15° 0'8979
Optical rotation4-+ 24-4°
Refractive index 1-4729
Acid value 2-2
Ester „ 1-6
These chemists identified the following bodies in the oil: a-pinene,
cineol, thujone, camphor, and inactive terpenes, probably consisting of a
mixture of dipentene and terpinene.

SATUBEJA OILS.
Savon/ Oil.—The oil distilled from the green herb, winter savory,
Satureja montana, has been examined by Haller,
3
who states that it is
an orange-yellow oil of aromatic taste, somewhat resembling true ori-
ganum oil, of specific gravity 0*9394 at 17° and optical rotation - 3° 25'.


(^1) U.S. Dept. Agric. Bur. Plant Industry, 235, 14.
*Jour. Jnd. Encj. Chem., 6 (1914), 804. " Comptes rendus, 94 (1882), 132.
VOL I. 17

Free download pdf