Chemistry of Essential Oils

170 THE CHEMISTRY OF ESSENTIAL OILS

The constants of the oils distilled from these several lots were :—

Specific Gravity at 15°.

Rotation .....

Solubility in 85 per Cent. Alcohol

80

75

Saponification Value

,, ,, after Acetylation

By careful fractionation they separated a body having the following,

characters :—

Boiling-point

Specific gravity at 23°

Rotatory power

Solubility in 70 per cent, alcohol

65

60

158° to 159° at 20 mm.

1-0378

-6°

1 in. 1-6

2-7

„ 6-5

This body, which is termed marionol, combines with sodium withi

evolution of hydrogen, and is probably a tertiary alcohol. On adding

to 10 grms. marionol dissolved in 10 grms. petroleum spirit, 1 grm. of

sodium, a brisk evolution of hydrogen takes place in the cold. On

warming over a water-bath solution is complete in the course of a day.

OIL OF CALIFORNIAN BAY.

The leaves of the so-called Californian Bay, a large forest tree
common on the mountains of California and the Pacific slope, yield
from 2

• 5 to 5'5 per cent, of an essential oil. The tree is also known as
  the mountain laurel, the sassafras laurel, and the Californian olive.
  Botanically it is Umbellularia Californica (Oreodaphne California)*
  The oil has the following characters :—
  Specific gravity
  Optical rotation
  Acid value ......
  Ester ,,
  „ ,, (after acetylation) ....

. 0-935 to 0-950
. - 22° „ - 25
3 „ 5
5 „ 7
50
It is soluble in 1'5 to 2*5 volumes of 70 per cent, alcohol.
Heaney

• states that the yield of oil from the leaves is 4 per cent..
  He claimed to have found about 35 per cent, of a hydrocarbon and 65
  per cent, of an oxygenated body, which he termed oreodaphnol, in the
  oil. This body, however, has never received confirmation, and it is very
  doubtful whether the hydrocarbon he obtained was pure. He assigned
  to it a specific gravity '894 and boiling-point 175°. Stillman,
  2
  on the
  other hand, claims that it contains terpineol and an oxygenated body of
  the formula C 8 H 12 O, which he named umbellol.
  Modern investigations by Power and Lees, however, have not con-
  firmed this statement. These chemists have isolated from the oil the
  following constituents : (1) Traces of free fatty acids including formic
  acid; (2) 1'7 per cent, of eugenol; (3) 6 per cent, of pinene ; (4) 20 per
  cent, of cineol; (5) 60 per cent, of a new unsaturated cyclic ketone of a.
  *Amer. Jour. Pliarm., 47 (1875), 105.^2 Berichte, 13 (1880), 630.