Chemistry of Essential Oils

88 THE CHEMISTEY OF ESSENTIAL OILS

Albany and Uitenhaage and Fort Beaufort Divisions, at an altitude

of 1 to 3000 ft.

Oil from Elionurm tripsacoides has been examined by Umney, the

yield being about 0*1 per cent. It was yellow in colour, and had an

odour somewhat resembling vetivert. It gave a reddish-violet colour

with ferric chloride, but only contained traces of a phenol, probably

eugenol.

The characters of the oil were as follows:—

Specific gravity

Optical rotation .....

Ester number

Saponification number (after acetylation)

0*976

- 10

10° 5'

42

The boiling-point of the oil was very high, indicating the presence of

a sesquiterpene as the chief constituent.

The following figures are the result of fractionation :—

Portion distilling below 275° C.. nil.

280°

290°

300°

310°

320°

325°

above 325°

2 per cent.

14

42

50

56

68

32

PALM/E.

OIL OF SAW PALMETTO.

The fruits of the palm, Sabal serrulata, which is found in the
Southern United States, especially in Florida, have been stated to yield
about 12 per cent, of essential oil having the following characters :—
Specific gravity 0-868 at 20°
Optical rotation 0°
Refractive index 14275
The oil is probably not a true essential oil, but the product of reaction
between the free fatty acids of the fruits and the alcohol in which they
had been kept. According to Shermann and Briggs

• the oil contains
  free caproic, caprylic, lauric, palmitic, and oleic acids, together with
  about 37 per cent, of the ethyl esters of these acids.

OIL OF COCO NUT.
A minute quantity of essential oil is obtained by distillation from
crude fatty oil of coco nut, Cocos nucifera.
The otf contains^2 methyl- heptyl - carbonyl, CH 3. CH(OH)C 7 H 15 ,
methyl - nonyl - carbinol, CH 3. CH(OH)C 9 H 19 , methyl - heptyl - ketone,
methyl-nonyl-ketone, and methyl-undecyl-ketone.

OIL OF EL^IS GUINEENSIS.
Salway^3 has examined the essential oil of palm kernels, the fruit of
Elais guineensis.
The oil has the following characters :—
^Pharm. Arch., 2 (1899), 101.
*Comptess rendus, 150 (1910), 1013; 151(1910), 697.
Jour. Chem. Soc. (1917), 407.