276 THE CHEMISTRY OF ESSENTIAL OILS
occur in threes at the extremity of the flowering branches and in other
parts indifferently. This variety is called the " Tuscan jasmine," as it
was first imported into India by the Grand Duke of Tuscany about
- The flowers are greatly esteemed in India by the native women,
who string them into necklaces.
Two species are found in Madeira. Jasminum odoratissimum bears
yellow flowers, which retain when dry the natural perfume suggestive
of a mixture of jasmine, jonquil, and orange blossom.
Jasminum odoratissimum is also cultivated in Formosa, on account
of its fragrant flowers, which are known as shuei flowers. According to
Tsuchihashi and Tasaki
1
these yield on extraction with petroleum ether
a concrete extract consisting of equal parts of "flower wax" and essential
oil. The latter amounted to O116 per cent, of the weight of the fresh
flowers extracted. It is a reddish-brown oil of specific gravity 0*9309,
FIG.^3 2.—Extracting jasmin by volatile solvents.
Rollet.] [Gattefossf.refractive index 1'4845, optical rotation + 5'64, acid value 5
*
85, saponifica-
tion value 92*25, acetyl value 186'2. On fractionation under 4 mm.
pressure it was separable into eleven fractions, in which the following con-
stituents were isolated: dextrolinalol, 6 per cent.; dextrolinalyl acetate,
6 per cent.; benzyl alcohol, 1*6 per cent.; benzyl acetate, 6 per cent. ;
indole and methyl anthranilate, 10 per cent.; acid high boiling con-
stituents, sesquiterpene or diterpene alcohol, 57 per cent.
Jasminum azonicum is also a native of Madeira. It bears white
flowers almost all the year round, and has long been cultivated in
English greenhouses.
Jasminum hirsutum is a native of China and India. It bears large
white flowers, and the leaves and stems are hairy, as the botanical name
indicates. The young plants are more hairy than older plants. The
flowers occur in bunches, sometimes as many as thirty in a bunch.(^1) J. Chem. Ind. Tokyo (1918), 21, 17.