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Page 99
The chemical history of this oil is one of great importance and
interest, affording, as it does, one of the examples where the progress
of modern chemistry has succeeded in producing artificially a complex
organic body, previously only known as the result of vital force.
This volatile oil is obtained from the winter-green, an American shrub
of the heath family, by distillation. When this plant is distilled, at
first an oil passes over which consists of C_{10}H_{8}, but when the
temperature reaches 464� Fahr., a pure oil distils into the receiver.
Therefore the essential oil of this plant, like many others, consists of
two portions--one a hydro-carbon, and the other an oxygenated compound;
this latter is the chief constituent of the oil, and that which is of so
much chemical interest, from the fact that it has been artificially
prepared.
It is termed, when thus prepared, the spiroylate of the oxide of methyl,
and is obtained when two parts of wood spirit, one and a half parts of
spiroylic acid, and one part of sulphuric acid are distilled together.
It is a colorless liquid, of an agreeable aromatic odor and taste; it
dissolves slightly in water, but in all proportions in ether and
alcohol; it boils between 411� and 435� Fahr., and has a specific
gravity of 1.173. This compound expels carbonic acid from its
combinations, and forms a series of salts, which contain one atom of
base and one atom of spiroylate of the oxide of methyl. It behaves
therefore as a conjugate acid. Its formula is C_{14}H_{5}O_{5} +
C_{2}H_{3}O.
The spiroylic acid may be separated from the natural oil by treating it
with a concentrated solution of caustic potash at a temperature of 113�
Fahr., when wood spirit is formed and evaporates, and the solution
contains the spiroylate of potash, from which, when decomposed with
sulphuric acid, the spiroylic acid separates and subsides in the fluid.
Spiroylic acid is also formed by the oxidation of spiroyligenic acid,
and when saligenin, salicin, courmacin, or indigo, is heated with
caustic potash.
* * * * *
ON THE APPLICATION OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY TO PERFUMERY.
BY DR. A.W. HOFMANN,
_Professor to the Royal College of Chemistry, London_.
Cahours' excellent researches concerning the essential oil of
_Gaultheria procumbens_ (a North American plant of the natural order of
the Ericin� of Jussieu), which admits of so many applications in
perfumery,[I] have opened a new field in this branch of industry. The
introduction of this oil among compound ethers must necessarily direct
the attention of perfumers[J] towards this important branch of
compounds, the number of which is daily increasing by the labors of
those who apply themselves to organic chemistry. The striking similarity
of the smell of these ethers to that of fruit had not escaped the
observation of chemistry; however, it was reserved to practical men to
discover by which choice and combinations it might be possible to
imitate the scent of peculiar fruits to such a nicety, that makes it
probable that the scent of the fruit is owing to a natural combination
identical to that produced by art; so much so, as to enable the chemist
to produce from fruits the said combinations, provided he could have at
his disposal a sufficient quantity to operate upon. The manufacture of
artificial aromatic oils for the purpose of perfumery[K] is, of course,
a recent branch of industry; nevertheless, it has already fallen into
the hands of several distillers, who produce sufficient quantity to
supply the trade; a fact, which has not escaped the observation of the
Jury at the London Exhibition. In visiting the stalls of English and
French perfumers at the Crystal Palace, we found a great variety of
these chemical perfumes, the applications of which were at the same time
practically illustrated by confectionery flavored by them. However, as
most of the samples of the oils sent to the Exhibition were but small, I
was prevented, in many cases, from making an accurate analysis of them.
The largest samples were those of a compound labelled "pear-oil," which,
by analysis, I discovered to be an alcoholic solution of pure acetate of
amyloxide. Not having sufficient quantity to purify it for combustion, I
dissolved it with potash, by which free fusel-oil was separated, and
determined the acetic acid in the form of a silver salt.
0.3080 gram. of silver salt = 0.1997 gram. of silver.
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