320 THE CHEMISTEY OF ESSENTIAL OILS
According to Landsberg,^1 the oil contains pinene and an oxygenated
body of the formula C 10 H1 8 O. Eichter^2 has, more recently, examined
the oil and found present isobutyric and palmitic acids in the form of
esters, and formic and acetic acids in the free state.
From the laevo-rotatory portions of the saponified oil, which boiled
between 150° and 160°, Eichter isolated a fraction boiling at 158° to
166° (d 1 4o 0*8633; aDl5o - 8-45°) in which he proved the presence of
pinene by means of the nitrosochloride and the nitrolbenzylamine^
The latter body possessed the same melting-point as a preparation
obtained from ordinary d-pinene, from which fact Eichter concludes
that the pinene of oil of carrot seed is also d-pinene, an erroneous in-
ference, because, as is well known, d- and Z-pinene yield the same
inactive nitrolbenzylamine. Deussen^3 has since shown that pinene
is present in the laevo-rotatory form. In a fraction boiling at from
168° to 176° (duo 0-8624; aDl50 - 5'85°) he discovered Z-limonene,
which he identified from the nitrosochloride and the nitrolpiperidine
(melting-point 103° to 106°). The portions with a high boiling-point
contained a crystalline body C 15 H 26 O 2 , which Eichter calls daucol,
and which he regards as a divalent sesquiterpene alcohol- This body
forms white needle crystals with a silky lustre, melting-point 115° to
116°; [a]Dl4o - 17-15° 17-47°.
The oil obtained at the period of maturity of the seeds by distilla-
tion of the entire plant of the wild carrot of the Puy-de-D6me, has been
examined by Eoure-Bertrand Fils.
4
The oil had a bright green colour.
Its constants are:—
Specific gravity at 15° (JC 0'9016
Optical rotation - 6° 56'
Soluble in 1 volume of 80 per cent, alcohol, but an opalescence
is formed on the subsequent addition of alcohol.
Acid value 2*7
Saponification number 195*4
„ ,, of the acetylated oil.... 226*8
The green colour of the oil is to be attributed to the fact that the
distillation had been carried out in a copper still.
The saponification number indicated above was obtained by boiling
for one hour with semi-normal alcoholic potash; after boiling for half
an hour a value of only about 169 was found.OIL OF AMMONIACUM.
This oil is usually obtained by distilling the gum resin of Dorema
ammoniacum with water. Persian ammoniacum is derived from this
plant, but a certain amount of ammoniacum from other sources is derived
from Ferula species. The yield of oil is very small, usually about '3 per
cent. The oil has the following characters :—
Specific gravity 0885 to 0894
Optical rotation + 1° „ + 3°
Refractive index 1-4723 „ 14808
Acid value 1 „ 4
Ester , 40-5
„ „ (after acetylation) 1064
It distils between 250° and 290°.
1
Arch. d. Pharm., 228 (1890), 85.
2
Ibid., 247 (1909), 391.
(^3) Berichte, 43 (1910), 523. ' Bulletin, April, 1912, 30.