The Art of Perfumery, and Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants Part 32

ASTRINGENT EXTRACT OF ROSES AND ROSEMARY.

Rosemary water, 2 quarts.

Esprit de rose, 1/2 pint.

Rectified spirit, 1-1/2 pint.

Extract of vanilla, 1 quart.

Magnesia to clear it, 2 oz.

Filter through paper.

SAPONACEOUS WASH.

Rectified spirit, 1 pint.

Rose-water, 1 gallon.

Extract of rondeletia, 1/2 pint.

Transparent soap, 1/2 oz.

Hay saffron, 1/2 drachm.

Shave up the soap very fine; boil it and the saffron in a quart of the rose-water; when dissolved, add the remainder of the water, then the spirit, finally the rondeletia, which is used by way of perfume. After standing for two or three days, it is fit for bottling. By transmitted light it is transparent, but by reflected light the liquid has a pearly and singular wavy appearance when shaken. A similar preparation is called Egg Julep.

BANDOLINES.

Various preparations are used to a.s.sist in dressing the hair in any particular form. Some persons use for that purpose a hard pomatum containing wax, made up into rolls, called thence _Baton Fixeteur._ The little "feathers" of hair, with which some ladies are troubled, are by the aid of these batons made to lie down smooth. For their formula, see p. 224, 225.

The liquid bandolines are princ.i.p.ally of a gummy nature, being made either with Iceland moss, or linseed and water variously perfumed, also by boiling quince-seed with water. Perfumers, however, chiefly make bandoline from gum tragacanth, which exudes from a shrub of that name which grows plentifully in Greece and Turkey.

ROSE BANDOLINE.

Gum tragacanth, 6 oz.

Rose-water, 1 gallon.

Otto of roses, 1/2 oz.

Steep the gum in the water for a day or so. As it swells and forms a thick gelatinous ma.s.s, it must from time to time be well agitated. After about forty-eight hours' maceration it is then to be squeezed through a coa.r.s.e clean linen cloth, and again left to stand for a few days, and pa.s.sed through a linen cloth a second time, to insure uniformity of consistency; when this is the case, the otto of rose is to be thoroughly incorporated. The cheap bandoline is made without the otto; for colored bandoline, it is to be tinted with ammoniacal solution of carmine, i.e.

_Bloom of Roses_. See p. 236.

ALMOND BANDOLINE

Is made precisely as the above, scenting with a quarter of an ounce of otto of almonds in place of the roses.

"Nor the sweet smell Of different flowers in odor and in hue Can make me any longer story tell."

Shakspeare.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

APPENDIX.

MANUFACTURE OF GLYCERINE.

Glycerine is generally made on the large scale, on the one hand, by directly saponifying oil with the oxide of lead, or, on the other, from the "waste liquor" of soap manufacturers. To obtain glycerine by means of the first of these methods is the reverse of simple, and at the same time somewhat expensive; and by means of the second process, the difficulty of entirely separating the saline matters of the waste liquor renders it next to impossible to procure a perfectly pure result. To meet both these difficulties, and to meet the steadily increasing demand for glycerine, Dr. Campbell Morfit recommends the following process, which, he a.s.serts, he has found, by experience, to combine the desirable advantages of economy as regards time, trouble, and expense. One hundred pounds of oil, tallow, lard, or stearin are to be placed in a clean iron-bound barrel, and melted by the direct application of a current of steam. Whilst still fluid and warm, add to it fifteen pounds of lime, previously slaked, and made into a milky mixture with two and a half gallons of water; then cover the vessel, and continue the steaming for several hours, or until the saponification shall be completed. This may be known when a sample of the soap when cold gives a smooth and bright surface on being sc.r.a.ped with the finger-nail, and at the same time, breaks with a crackling noise. By this process the fat or oil is decomposed, its acids uniting with the lime to form insoluble lime-soap, while the eliminated glycerine remains in solution in the water along with the excess of the lime. After it has been sufficiently boiled, it is allowed to cool and to settle, and it is then to be strained.

The strained liquid contains only the glycerine and excess of lime, and requires to be carefully concentrated by heated steam. During evaporation, a portion of the lime is deposited, on account of its lesser solubility in hot than in cold water. The residue is removed by treating the evaporated liquid with a current of carbonic acid gas, boiling by heated steam to convert a soluble bicarbonate of lime that may have been formed into insoluble neutral carbonate, decanting or straining off the clear supernatant liquid from the precipitated carbonate of lime, and evaporating still further, as before, if necessary, so as to drive off any excess of water. As nothing fixed or injurious is employed in this process, glycerine, prepared in this manner, may be depended upon for its almost absolute purity.

M. Jahn's process is as follows:--

Take of finely-powdered litharge five pounds, and olive oil nine pounds.

Boil them together over a gentle fire, constantly stirring, with the addition occasionally of a small quant.i.ty of warm water, until the compound has the consistence of plaster. Jahn boils this plaster for half an hour with an equal weight of water, keeping it at the same time constantly stirred. When cold, he pours off the supernatant fluid, and repeats the boiling three times at least with a fresh portion of water.

The sweet fluids which result are mixed, and evaporated to six pounds, and sulphuretted hydrogen conducted through them as long as sulphuret of lead is precipitated. The liquid filtered from the sulphuret of lead is to be reduced to a thin syrupy consistence by evaporation. To remove the brown coloring matter, it must be treated with purified animal charcoal. However, this agent does not prevent the glycerine becoming slightly colored upon further evaporation. It possesses also still a slight smell and taste of lead plaster, which may be removed by diluting it with water, and by digestion with animal charcoal, and some fresh burnt-wood charcoal. After filtration, this liquid must be evaporated until it has acquired a specific gravity of 1.21, when it will be found to be free from smell, and of a pale yellow color. For the preparation of glycerine, distilled water is necessary, to prevent it being contaminated with the impurities of common water. Jahn obtained, by this method, from the above quant.i.ty of lead plaster, upwards of seven ounces of glycerine.--_Archives der Pharmacie_.

TEST FOR ALCOHOL IN ESSENTIAL OILS.

J.J. Bernoulli recommends for this purpose acetate of potash. When to an ethereal oil, contaminated with alcohol, dry acetate of potash is added, this salt dissolves in the alcohol, and forms a solution from which the volatile oil separates. If the oil be free from alcohol, this salt remains dry therein.

Wittstein, who speaks highly of this test, has suggested the following method of applying it as the best:--In a dry test-tube, about half an inch in diameter, and five or six inches long, put no more than eight grains of powdered dry acetate of potash; then fill the tube two-thirds full with the essential oil to be examined. The contents of the tube must be well stirred with a gla.s.s rod, taking care not to allow the salt to rise above the oil; afterwards set aside for a short time. If the salt be found at the bottom of the tube dry, it is evident that the oil contains no spirit. Oftentimes, instead of the dry salt, beneath the oil is found a clear syrupy fluid, which is a solution of the salt in the spirit, with which the oil was mixed. When the oil contains only a little spirit, a small portion of the solid salt will be found under the syrupy solution. Many essential oils frequently contain a trace of water, which does not materially interfere with this test, because, although the acetate of potash becomes moist thereby, it still retains its pulverent form.

A still more certain result may be obtained by distillation in a water-bath. All the essential oils which have a higher boiling-point than spirit, remain in the retort, whilst the spirit pa.s.ses into the receiver with only a trace of the oil, where the alcohol may be recognized by the smell and taste. Should, however, a doubt exist, add to the distillate a little acetate of potash and strong sulphuric acid, and heat the mixture in a test-tube to the boiling-point, when the characteristic odor of acetic ether will be manifest, if any alcohol be present.

DETECTION OF POPPY AND OTHER DRYING OILS IN ALMOND AND OLIVE OILS.

It is known that the olein of the drying oils may be distinguished from the olein of those oils which remain greasy in the air by the first not being convertible into elaidic acid, consequently it does not become solid. Professor Wimmer has recently proposed a convenient method for the formation of elaidin, which is applicable for the purpose of detecting the adulteration of almond and olive oils with drying oils. He produces nitrous acid by treating iron filings in a gla.s.s bottle with nitric acid. The vapor of nitrous acid is conducted through a gla.s.s tube into water, upon which the oil to be tested is placed. If the oil of almonds or olives contains only a small quant.i.ty of poppy oil when thus treated, it is entirely converted into crystallized elaidin, whilst the poppy oil swims on the top in drops.

COLORING MATTER OF VOLATILE OILS.

BY G.E. SACHSSE.

It is well known that most ethereal oils are colorless; however, there are a great number colored, some of which are blue, some green, and some yellow. Up to the present time the question has not been decided, whether it is the necessary property of ethereal oils to have a color, or whether their color is not due to the presence of some coloring matter which can be removed. It is most probable that their color arises from the presence of a foreign substance, as the colored ethereal oils can at first, by careful distillation, be obtained colorless, whilst later the colored portion pa.s.ses over. Subsequent appearances lead to the solution of the question, and are certain evidence that ethereal oils, when they are colored, owe their color to peculiar substances which, by certain conditions, may be communicated from one oil to another. When a mixture of oils of wormwood, lemons, and cloves is subjected to distillation, the previously green-colored oil of wormwood pa.s.ses over, at the commencement, colorless, while, towards the end of the distillation, after the receiver has been frequently charged, the oil of cloves distils over in very dense drops of a dark green color. It therefore appears that the green coloring matter of the oil of wormwood has been transferred to the oil of cloves.--_Zeitschrift fur Pharmacie._

ARTIFICIAL PREPARATION OF OIL OF CINNAMON.

BY A. STRECKER.