N. O. GKAMINE^E 73
imained unsuccessful; it was found that the change takes place rapidly
when the oil is heated to 100°.
Distillation experiments have also been carried out at one of the
.agriculturo-chemical experimental stations in Cochin China. It was
then found that the content of oil during the dry season is considerably
larger than during the rainy season, and that the portion of the leaf
equal to one-third its length measured from the tip, is much more
aromatic than the other two-thirds.
From well-dried leaves 8 to 8*5 per cent, of oil was obtained, whilst
from leaves distilled directly after harvesting, 2 per cent, was obtained
in the rainy, and 5*5 per cent, in the dry season.
According to Bacon,^1 a variety of grass which, from the character-
istics of the lemon-grass oil it produces, is regarded as Cymbopogon
citratus D.C., is cultivated to a small extent in the Philippines, although
it occurs everywhere throughout the Archipelago, both as a garden-
plant and in the wild state, and grows in special profusion in the high-
lands of the province of Benguet. In the Tagal language this oil-grass
is called by the name given to it in 1635 by the Spanish Jesuit, Juan
Eusebius Niirnberg, who was the first to describe it, viz.: tanglat or,
more accurately, tanglad. Other native names for the plant are salai
and balyoco; its Spanish name is Paja de Meca. A grass five months
old, distilled two days after being cut, produced 0*2 per cent, of an oil
30°
having the following characters: d ^ 0*894, aD3o° + 8*1°, n 30 ° 1*4857,.citral-content 79 per cent. The same plants, when cut again four
months later, produced 02 per cent, oil with the following characters:
30°
d -jo- 08841, aD3o° + 2-1°, ND3Q° 14765, citral-content 77 per cent. A
grass S3ven months old from another plantation, distilled immediately
after being cut, produced 021 per cent, oil, possessing the following
30°
characters: d —^ 0891, aD 3 0° + 7-76°, WDSO> 14812, and citral value 78
per cent.
Lemon-grass oil is also produced in small quantities in Burma, theOrigin.Ceylon
2
.
India, Tyrna
2
„ Cochin
2
,, Mariani
Uganda a
Bermuda^2
Montserrat^2
German New
Mayotte^3
Seychelles^4
Formosa^5
Celebes
5Guin2a
3(115°.
0*9058
0-9021
0-9053
0-9140
0*870 to 0*894
0-86890-881 to 0-892
0-893
0-895 to 0-910
0-865 „ 0-914
0-880- 0°6'
- 0° 20'
- 0
°
39'- 0° 5'
- 0° 10' to - 0° 24'
- 0° 21'
- 0° 11' to - 1° 15'
- 0° 23'
- 0° 15' to - 2° 40'
0° to - 0° 8' - 0° 15'
Citral-content
(Bisulphite
Method).76°/ 0
72-5 %
84-5 °
73%
64-5 to 75 °/ 0
40 °/o
over 74 %
65 to 78 %
87°/ 0
76 to 81 %
54 „ 76%
69%1
Philippine Journ. Sc, 4 (1909), 111.
2
Bull. Imp. Iwtit., 9 (1911), 334.
•• SchimmeVs Report, April, 1909, 65.
4
5 Ibid., April, 1914, 67, 68.
Ibid., April, 1913, 72.