Upon distillation of the sawdust from the wood of Callitris quadrivalvis, E. Grimal5) obtained 2 p.c. of a reddish-brown volatile oil with a phenol-like odor. It is soluble in all proportions in 80 p. c. alcohol, deviates (in alcoholic solution) to the left, and has a sp. gr. of 0,991 at 15°. When distilled it boils between 230 and 306° leaving a resinous residue. It contains about 5 p. c. of phenols, which consist of carvacrol (m. p. of phenyl-urethane 141°) and hydrothymoquinone (oxidation to thymo-quinone). In that portion of the oil which did not react with alkali the presence of thymoquinone (m. p. of isonitrosothymol 161°, of mononitrothymol 137°) was demonstrated.

1) Baker and Smith, A research on the pines of Australia. Sydney 1910, p. 291.

2) H. Haesel, Pharm. Ztg. 48 (1903), 574.

3) Tschirch and Balzer, Arch, der Pharm. 234 (1896), 311.

4) Journ. chem. Soc. 79 (1901), 1149.

5) Compt. rend. 139 (1904), 927.

Australian Callitris Oils

Many of the Australian species of Callitris yield economic woods which are very resistant toward termites, the so-called white ants. This property is very likely due to a content of a phenol, still unidentified, which R. T. Baker and H. G. Smith1) have named callitrol (see also p. 143).

Some of the species also secrete a resin similar in its properties to African sandarac (from Callitris quadrivalvis). In as much as no rational method of production has been worked out, the collection of the resin does not pay at present prices.

In the discussion of the individual oils, the specis of Callitris are grouped in such a manner that the botanical characteristics coincide with the occurrence of d-limonene, /-limonene and pinene.