Chemistry of Essential Oils

ANACAKDIACEJE 463

Specific gravity 0-868 to 0-870
Optical rotation..+ 12° „ + 20°
It consists almost entirely of a-pinene.
OLL OF SCHINUS MOLLE.
Schinus molle is a native of America and is widely distributed in
Bolivia, Chili, Peru, New Granada, and Mexico. It is very commonly
known as the American pepper plant.
\ ^ It is also met with in Uruguay and the southern regions of Brazil,
the provinces of San Paulo and Eio Grande do Sul.
It is extensively cultivated in Senegal, in Teneriffe, and in the whole
of the Mediterranean regions. It ornaments numerous gardens in Pro-
yence in the neighbourhood of Nice, and is also much cultivated in Algeria
where it is very widely distributed.
Eoure-Bertrand Fils^1 have examined two essential oils of Schinus,
obtained from Algeria (Saint-Denis du Sig) in order to compare their con-
stants with those of an essential oil prepared from the plant cultivated at
Grasse. One of the Algerian oils was obtained by the distillation of en-
tire branches, leaves, wood, and fruits, and the other by the distillation of
the leaves only.
Schinus molle is a tree of small dimensions with small dioecious
flowers, carried on articulated peduncles disposed in bunches. The calix is
small, with five lobes more or less cut off, with quincuncial praefloration.
The corolla has five petals, much longer than the sepals, inserted on a
disc; they are erect at first and spread out later on.
Samples of the oil distilled in Mexico have been examined by
Schimmel & Co.
2
These oils had the following characters:—

d 16 o.

(ID

Acid Number.

Ester Number

Ester Number after

Acetylation.

i

Solubility in 90 perl

cent. Alcohol j

Algerian Oils.

Entire

Branches.

0-8634

+ 50° 54'

—

5-5

29-4

Leaves.

0-8658

+ 65° 20'

—

0-7

3-4

40-4

French Oils

from Grasse.

Entire

Branches.

0-8696

+ 46° 13'

2-1

8-2

43-4

turbidity

Mexican Oils.

Leaves.

0-8583

+ 44° 50'

1-47665

7-2

—

Fruit. Unknown.

0-8600 0-8492

+ 42° 30' +56° 27'

1-47909 1-47616

25-2 —

56-5

Even with absolute alcohol

the solution, at first clear,

becomes turbid when more

alcohol is added

The oil contains a-pinene, Z-phellandrene, caroacrol, a crystalline

body melting at 160°, and possibly a sesquiterpene.

OIL OF EHUS COTINUS.

This oil was first obtained from the young twigs of the tree by Perrier

and Fouchet,3 who obtained 0*1 per cent, of the oil, which was known

as " oil of fustic ". The oil had the following characters :—

1

Bulletin, April (1909), 29.

*

Report, April (1908), 121.

s

Bull. Soc. Chem., iv. 5 (1909), 1074.