Chemistry of Essential Oils

LEGUMINOS^ 475

Particular attention is directed to this oil, because it may be that it

would be well to develop the distillation of this particular wood for its

content of linalyl acetate and for the purposes for which the oils contain-

ing that ester are used, rather than for linalol and the purposes for which

oils containing that alcohol are employed.

Roure-Bertrand Fils

l

have described the oil distilled from linaloe

seeds. It had the following characters :—

Specific gravity

Optical rotation.

Linalyl acetate (esters)

Refractive index.

0-8858 to 0-8883

+ 1°30'

10-2 per cent.

1-4655 at 18°

They have detected the following bodies in the oil: Z-linalol, Z-ter-

pineol, nerol, and geraniol. They consider that this dextro-rotatory seed

oil is present in the dextro-rotatory linaloe oils of commerce above re-

ferred to.

LEGUMINOS^E.

OIL OF COPAIBA.

This oil is obtained by the distillation of the oleo-resin (balsam) of

copaiba, which is the product of several species of Copaifera. The trees

yielding this valuable commercial product are principally found round

about the Amazon and its tributary streams, as far north as Guaiana,

Venezuela, and Columbia. The principal varieties of the balsam are the

following :—

Bahia, Cartagena, Maracaibo, Maranham, Para, Cayenne, and Angos-

tura. The following are probably the sources of several of these

(Umney) :—

Bahia, C. coriacea.

Cartagena, C. officinalis.

Maracaibo, C. officinalis.

Maranham, C. landsdorffii.

Para, C. multijuga.

Cayenne, C. guyanensis.

But there is no doubt that there is very little balsam in commerce
which has been obtained entirely from one species, and it must be empha-
sised that genuine commercial balsam or oils may well vary somewhat
outside the limits quoted for a comparatively small number of specimens
examined. The following figures are, therefore, to be accepted subject to
the above limitation.
The average yields of oil from the various types of balsam are as.
follows :—

Maracaibo balsam

Maranham

Para.

Cartagena.

Bahia

Angostura.

Maturin

Surinam

35 ,

58 ,

40 ,

40 ,

45 ,

40 ,

40 ,

, 55

, 78

, 60

, 60

, 55

, 55

, 72

(^1) Report, October, 1907, 16.