CONIFERS 37
It is soluble in 3 to 4 volumes of 70 per cent, alcohol. The greater
part of the oil distils between 180° and 208°.
Eose and LivingstoneJ obtained about 1 per cent, of essential oil
from the leaves and young branches of Thuja plicata, the so-called
Washington cedar. This oil has the following characters:—
Specific gravity ......... 0-913
Optical rotation - 4*77°
Refractive index ......... 1
- 4552
Acid value 0
- 5
Ester „ 2-28
„ ,, (after acetylation) 8-8
About 85 per cent, of the oil distilled between 100° and 110° at
40 mm., and consisted of a-thujone. From 3 to 5 per cent, of d-a-pinene
is also present, as well as about 3 per cent, of tanacetyl alcohol, probably
in the form of its acetate. An oil distilled by Schimmel & Co. from the
dried leaves had an optical rotation + 5*4°, but as the sample examined
by Kose and Livingstone was prepared from fresh material in the country
of its origin, it may be taken to possess the normal characters of the oil.
SAVIN OIL.Oil of Savin is obtained from the fresh twigs of Juniperus sabina.
It is an oil which finds but a limited employment in legitimate pharmacy
as a uterine stimulant and emmenagogue. It is of no value for per-
fumery purposes, as its odour is somewhat unpleasant. It is occasion-
ally used for criminal purposes, and one case is recorded of a medical
man being sentenced to transportation for having used it with the in-
tention of procuring abortion.^2 It was official in the 1885 British
Pharmacopoeia, but it has been wisely omitted from the later editions.
The yield of oil from the twigs is fairly high, varying from 3 to 5 per
cent. An oil is distilled in the south of France from various other
species of Juniperus (Juniperus phosnicea and Juni/perus thurifera, for
example) and is incorrectly called savin oil.
The oil contains a number of constituents, of which Wallach first
characterised the sesquiterpene, cadinene. A considerable proportion of
terpenes is present, which appear to consist of sabinene, terpinene, and
traces of pinene. Fromm
3
separated the oil into three main portions
by fractional distillation. The earliest distillate, below 195°, contains
furfurol, di-acetyl, and methyl alcohol, but consists mainly of terpenes;
the middle portion, 195° to 235°, consists chiefly of ethereal salts, and
the last portion, 235° to 310°, consists of cadinene and some resinous
bodies, which are possibly the effects of heat on the terpenes. The
middle fraction yields an oil boiling at 222° to 224°, which was shown
to be the acetate of an alcohol C 10 H 15 OH, which the author terms
sabinol and which is present to the extent of 10 per cent. (Schimmel
had previously identified an alcoholic acetate, but the formula of the
alcohol was given as C 10 H 17 OH). The alcohol, obtained by hydrolysing
the acetate, is a colourless oil, boiling at 210° to 213° (but see below),
and with only a faint odour. In the higher boiling fraction of the esters,
Fromm also detected a liquid dibasic acid boiling at 255°, of the formula
C 20 H 3605 and a solid acid, C 1 4H 1608 , melting at 181°. According to
1
2 Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc.t^34 (1912), 201.
* Medical Times and Gazette, 1852, 404.
Bericht, 31 (1898), 2025; 33 (1900), 1210.