Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/235

Rh Prof. D. D. Kanga, m. a., of Elphinstone College, Bombay, who has analysed this plant, reports as follows : —

The flowers were collected in the months of August and September from places in the neighbourhood of the Science Research Institute, Bangalore, dried in air and distilled with steam.

The leaves were also locally collected in the month of January 1912, powdered and extracted with warm alcohol for the determination of the constituents ; the alcoholic extract was steam-distilled, when an oil came over along with a little free volatile acid. 28.26 grams of the fresh flowers lost 22.2 grams, of water on drying at HOC. Hence moisture 78 per cent.

The yield of the oil from the air-dried flowers was 0.077, while that from the leaves was 0.2 per cent.

The following table gives the physical properties and some chemical constants of the oils : —

Oil from the dried flowers.

Oil from the fresh flowers.

Oil from the leaves.

Oil from the

leaves of the

South American

plant, according

to Messrs.

Schimmeland

Co's. Report,

Oct. 1909.

Colour ...

Yellow

Yellow

Yellow

Pale-yellow

Odour

Powerful, per- sistent and pleasant, re- minding of sage.

Powerful, per- sistent and pleasant re- minding of sage.

Powerful, per- sistent and pleasant, re- minding of sage.

Pleasant, re- minding of

sage.

Yield ...

0-07 % by weight.

0-2 "jo by weight

Varying great- ly according to age. One yield was 0-07% and another 0*245% by volume.

Specific ... gravity.

D26>915

d|£ 0-92114

D f-°0-9132

Refractive Index

Optical Rotation.

r£ 6 ' 5 ° 1-4987.

1 J Hg— green +23*9°

4 6 ' 5 ° 15031

70°, 1-48933

M r> + 1-96°

30° 1.4913 [a]Jf+ll*«

Saponifica- tion Value

10

...

...

Acetyl value

43-6

When subjected to fractional distillation under a pressure varying from 45 to 55mm., the following fractions were collected

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