The Literature of the Essential Oils - Advances in Chemistry (ACS

The Literature of the Essential Oils W. PHILIP LEIDY

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Fritzsche Brothers, Inc., New York, Ν. Y.

The literature of the essential oils has a long history, during which it has developed along two distinct lines: preparation and application of the oils, and identification, structure, and synthesis of their com ponents. Even in a geographical sense the literature is extensive, although most of the analytical work has been done in Europe. Nomenclature presents a major problem to the research worker, partly be cause botanical exactitude with regard to essential oil plants is a very recent development. The multi tude of trivial chemical names also confuses the searcher. Comprehensive texts are included in an annotated bibliography, which also lists books and periodicals that give important information on essen tial oils.

T h e chemistry of the essential oils is not only one of the most difficult provinces of organic chemistry, it is also one of the least popular. This neglect is disappointing to those who work i n the field, and who know the gen uine importance of the essential oils. B y comparison with petroleum or steel or textiles, the oils are a modest commodity; b y comparison with cortisone, or with certain molds, they are a bit lacking i n drama. B u t they are available i n such limited quantities, yet so widely employed, that they plainly have a utility quite out of proportion to the volume of their production. Our annual trade i n them (exclusive of turpentine) does not exceed $100,000,000; but the oils themselves, or chemicals made from them, are valuable i n gredients i n products worth conservatively 200 times that sum. This is a sober trade estimate. The oils have an astonishing number of uses. They serve as flavoring i n foods, as perfumes, as odor masks. They improve or disguise the taste of unpleasant drugs. They act as medicines, as starting materials for the synthesis of valuable chemicals. They perfume our soaps, make our dentifrices palatable, render our plastics inoffensive. One of them supplies the basic compound from which vitamin A is commercially synthe sized. Most of these applications are modern. I n an earlier day the essential oils had other, perhaps more romantic, uses. They were credited with miraculous medicinal properties, but their supposed curative powers have been usurped b y the antibiotics. Certain of them were thought to possess marvelous rejuvenative abilities; and here the steroids have taken over. Others were said to keep the devil away; nothing has replaced these.

History of Literature of Essential Oils The oils have been produced for a long time, b y a number of methods, and i n practi cally every country i n the world. A s a consequence, a very extensive—and a very dif fuse—literature has grown up around them. 307

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In general, the techniques of searching this literature will not differ from those famil iar to most scientific workers. The researcher i n the field of the essential oils will use many of the same reference tools the researcher i n every other field uses—Chemical Ab stracts, for example, or Beilstein. Obviously, however, some of his problems, and some of his sources, will be different. The literature of the essential oils has a long history, i n the course of which it has tended to develop along two fairly distinct lines, one dealing with the preparation and applica tions of the oils, the other with the identification, structure, and synthesis of their com ponents. Both areas of research have their own lengthy histories, although the oils were produced long before they were investigated chemically. The study of the earliest meth ods of preparation, and of the first uses of the essential oils, is properly the field of the historian of the subject; an excellent account is given in the historical introduction to the work of Gildemeister and Hoffmann (16). Reports of the chemical investigation of the oils date from the seventeenth century, a period coinciding with a considerable advance i n methods of distillation. A t that time, the oils were thought to consist of two elements—one a resinous, water-insoluble sub stance, unitary and common to all oils, the other a " s p i r i t " peculiar to individual oils and responsible for their distinctive odors and tastes. So long as this theory held, which is to say to the end of the eighteenth century, research was limited to the observation of physi cal properties and of the most elementary chemical reactions—that of strong acids on the oils, for example. Here again, the literature describing all this activity may safely be left to the historian. A more modern period begins with the early ΙδΟΟ'β; but it is usual to place the signifi cant beginnings even later, in the pioneer work of Otto Wallach on the terpenes (3Ç), i n the 1880's. W i t h the work of Wallach, as one historian has pointed out, research on the essential oils matured from an empirical to a scientific study. B y contrast with many of the workers who had preceded him, Wallach was methodical and systematic; he devoted himself to the complete investigation of a single class of compounds, not "here and there an oil or a terpene." If this interpretation is accepted, we may assume that practically all of the important published material on the essential oils has appeared within the last 70 years, in an age, in other words, of fairly adequate indexing and abstracting, and of ex cellent editorship. This means that all of it is moderately easy to get at, and that there is not much danger of missing anything of value. Since searching the scientific literature is frequently a tedious business even at best, we may be grateful that this is the case. A further word ought to be said about the history of the subject. Since the time of Wallach the whole field of synthetics has expanded, increasing the bulk of the literature on the essential oils. I n its earliest phase investigation of the oils was confined to a study of their properties, or to the isolation of components—for example, of the multitudinous "camphors" that so incensed Berzelius in the 1820's. A t a later stage the systematic study of classes of compounds was undertaken. T o this we owe the literature of the ter penes, the aldehydes, the ketones, and so on. A t about the same time, the first attempts at synthesis were made. The work of Perkin, Tilden, and others belongs to the 1870's; but the main development is, of course, much later. I n this connection Finnemore (15) has pointed out that the history of such products as the essential oils follows three stages: The first is that i n which the natural product holds the market, the second that i n which the natural.product and the synthetic strive for supremacy, and the final stage is that in which the synthetic prevails.

World-Wide Essential Oil Studies In the course of the last century and a half probably at least 6000, and possibly more than 10,000 essential oils have been analyzed or reported i n one way or another. Of the single plant family Pinaceae, for example, more than 200 oils have been examined ; of the single genus Eucalyptus, an equal number; of the single species Citrus, at least 21—14 of these from the single subspecies amara. E v e n i n a geographical sense the production and study (and therefore the literature) of the essential oils are most extensive. The major part of the analytical work on the In LITERATURE RESOURCES; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.


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subject has been done i n the laboratories of Europe; but the rest of the world has not been idle. F r o m Australia reports have been coming out regularly for well over 50 years, chiefly about oils of the Eucalyptus species so preponderant there. I n this area the work of Baker and Smith (27), and of Penfold and Morrison, has been outstanding. I n the D u t c h East Indies—the home, probably, of a wider variety of essential oils than any similarly limited region on earth—the research done at the famous laboratory i n Buitenzorg was important for many years. I n Japan, India, and Zanzibar (among others) private and government agencies have done excellent work, analyzing oils, maintaining standards, and guarding against adulteration. The expansion of the industry into the western hemi sphere within recent years has introduced new types of oils to the world market, and has broadened research. A l l of these movements are reflected in the literature of the subject. Because the study of the subject has been world-wide, its literature has become re markably polyglot. I t is therefore not true i n this field, as i t is i n others, that the i m portant works are i n a limited number of western languages. The essential oils have been described i n a dismaying variety of tongues. U n t i l very recently, the most reliable re ports on camphor were i n Japanese. The most detailed treatment of rose geranium oil is in Russian. M u c h of the best work on the East Indian oils is in D u t c h . Fortunately the greater part of this work has been abstracted into German, English, or French ; but lan guage remains a serious barrier, particularly because abstracts are so frequently late i n ap pearance. There are indications that the Russians are at present engaged in an intensive cultivation of essential oil plants, trying to develop varieties with higher yields of oil. They also appear to be doing extensive analytical work. B u t only a fraction of their literature is available, and even where it is, translation is a problem. The situation is even worse with regard to the Japanese material. I n September 1951 Fujita, one of the out standing Japanese workers i n this field, published a book of over 600 pages (26), " F u n d a mental Studies of Essential Oils." T o anyone familiar with Fujita's work the book is of great interest; i t apparently represents considerable original research, and deals with a number of oils not previously reported. It is crammed with suggestive tables and provoc ative diagrams; but only the title has been translated. In a strict sense, of course, the only real "literature of the essential oils" is that which deals directly with the oils themselves, or with the properties of their components— certainly a considerable body of material, and one that answers most questions that or dinarily arise. B u t for the solution of some problems at least, it will be necessary to step beyond these limits into other literatures dealing with other sciences. The chemist who is attempting to identify a particular oil or to set up standards for its purity may find h i m self faced with a thorny issue of botany, on which he must take some stand whether he wants to or not. If he decides to work on the biogenesis of the oils he will find himself in plant physiology or i n biochemistry. Above all, if he is concerned with the structure of the component of an oil, or with its synthesis, he will find it necessary to search i n the broadest reaches of organic and analytical chemistry. A l l this is merely to say, as a final bit of characterization, that like practically every other branch of science, the study of the essential oils cannot successfully be isolated from a wider body of knowledge, and that its literature has the customary shifting boundaries.

Problems of Nomenclature It would be well, now, to discuss one or two of the major problems that face the re search worker when he first confronts the literature of the essential oils. Apart from the language difficulty, the chief problem is undoubtedly that of nomenclature, a problem faced, of course, b y every researcher i n every field. B u t i n the case of the essential oils, the difficulty seems somehow aggravated. A long history, a world-wide traffic, and the customary conservatism have all contributed to the invention and retention of an inap propriate and ambiguous terminology, both botanical and chemical. This condition is of direct concern to every one who works i n the field. It influences the acceptability of a good deal of the literature on the subject. The worker i n the essential oils soon learns that commercial geranium oils are ex tracted from several species, varieties, and strains of Pelargonium and not from Geranium In LITERATURE RESOURCES; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.

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at a l l ; that bay oil has nothing to do with sweet bay or with bay laurel, being distilled from the leaves of the bay rum tree, or Pimenta racemosa, which is not to be confused with Pimenta officinalis, from the leaves of which pimenta leaf oil is obtained; that cedar leaf oil comes from a species of Thuja, while cedarwood oil comes from two species of Juniperus; that oil of Niobe is i n fact only methyl benzoate. H e remembers that East Indian oil of sandalwood is distilled from the wood of Sanialum album, while West Aus tralian oil of sandalwood comes from Eucarya spicata, and African oil of sandalwood is de rived (perhaps) from a species of Osyris. H e never forgets that anise oil is distilled from PimpineUa anisum, family Umbelliferae, while star anise oil comes from Illicium verum, family Magnoliaceae; nor that the name opopanax oil, which formerly designated the oleo-gum-resin of Opopanax chircnium, family Umbelliferae, today designates the gum of Commiphera erythraea var. glabrescens, family Burseraceae. The ambiguity is by no means limited to popular names such as geranium or sandal wood. A constant shuffling of botanical genera and species goes on, with consequent headaches for the chemist. Bois de rose is a case i n point. The Cayenne type of oil has successively been labeled Ocotea caudata, Protium altissimum, and Aniba rosaeodora, where it now rests. The Brazilian type has gone through the stages of Aniba parviflora, Aydendron parviilorum, Ocotea parviflora, and Aniba rosaeodora var. amazonica, where it now stands. The Eucalypts are i n even worse shape; they have suffered particularly rough handling from overzealous botanists. These names are not cited merely to be impressive. The exact botanical identifica tion of an essential oil plant is of obvious and primary importance to the chemist who i n vestigates that o i l ; and botanical exactitude with regard to essential oil plants is an ap pallingly recent development. I n many cases the confusion is explainable. Local merchants, planters, and distill ers must be forgiven if they classed together everything that smelled of geranium, or of sandalwood, or of cedar; or if when opopanax became unavailable, they resorted to its nearest equivalent. There is less excuse for the scientific investigators who worked at the components of oils described as bois de rose, careless of their origin, so that much of their work must be discarded ; or analyzed with commendable thoroughness an oil which they neglected to identify as Petitgrain Paraguay or Petitgrain Bigarade. Unfortunately, these are not isolated or theoretical cases. They recur, and they raise issues which must be considered carefully. Obviously, research done upon an u n identified or wrongly identified oil is valueless. Unhappily this has not always been rec ognized, and some of the finest compilers i n the past have burdened their books with questionable material. N o r is the confusion limited to botanical terms. The multitude of " t r i v i a l " chemi cal names i n this field is again testimony to the conservatism of scientists. The classic example of how meaningless a term can become is perhaps that of the "camphors," of which there must once have been at least 15—"bergamot camphor," "thyme camphor," "cardamom camphor," and so on. Berzelius protested against this indiscriminate use in the 1820's; Otto Wallach, 70 years later, persuaded his coworkers to drop the term. (It persists, however, i n the trade.) The continued use of such words as "limonene" and " c i t r a l , " when more descriptive and comprehensible terms are at hand, is justified only because tradition is behind i t . Here again the considerations are not theoretical; they are entirely practical. One of the results of the capricious use of terms i n the past has been that single substances are des ignated by several unrelated names, and that the same name is used for several unrelated substances. Where this has been the case, it may be necessary to unravel some tangled threads. Moreover, it is necessary to watch current literature very closely. Only very recently, for example, was it shown that α-caryophyllene and humulene are identical, although this had been suspected for some time.

Variations in Production and Reporting The problem of nomenclature is not limited to the field of the essential oils; it is a general malady. However, there are certain problems peculiar to the subject. In In LITERATURE RESOURCES; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.


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working with the essential oils, it is well to bear i n mind that their quality and composition will depend on a number of variables. The mere fact of cultivation, for example, will make a difference: The cultivated clove contains 82 to 95 % of eugenol; the wild type contains none. The wild ylang ylang is practically odorless, while the cultivated type yields two heavily fragrant oils. The manner of production of an oil also affects the qual ity. Subtle components destroyed b y steam distillation will be preserved b y volatile extraction, or by enfleurage; and oils distilled for 2 hours will differ materially from those distilled for 4 hours. Certain types of oils cannot be distilled at all. Moreover, an iden tical species of plant, growing in different localities or under different conditions of cultiva tion, may yield different oils. Florida oil of orange differs from California oil of orange. Also, there are four types of Ocimum oils, varying at least to some degree according to geographical origin. Or trees belonging to the same species may yield oils of different composition, even though they grow in the same locality. The members of certain species of Eucalyptus, morphologically indistinguishable, have been observed to yield widely different types of oil. M a n y plants yield more than one type of oil. The bitter orange, for example, yields a flower oil (Neroli), a leaf oil (Petitgrain Bigarade), and a peel oil (bitter orange oil). Each of these has its own properties, components, and uses. A l l of these factors are of importance i n studying and evaluating the literature of the essential oils. A n d unfortunately research workers have been careless. They have neg lected to say how an oil was produced, or where it came from, or what part of the plant was used i n making i t — a l l of which determine the reliability of the literature on the subject. What has been said emphasizes the desirability of going back to the original litera ture. Intermediate sources, such as abstract journals, do make errors, occasionally serious ones. I t is not to the discredit of Chemical Abstracts that it is not perfect (what work of such scope could be?), but so long as it is not infallible, i t ought to be used largely as an index. Compilers have more than once carried on the mistakes of their predecessors, and an initial typographical error may distort the literature for 50 years. In connection with any judgment upon the work of previous workers i n this field, it is well to remember that the personal factor is particularly important where essential oils are concerned. Slight variations i n conditions of production, or of laboratory analysis, may result i n divergences i n physical properties—for example, i n odor—which may lead to unfair conclusions. One final thing remains to be said in this connection. I n making any search of essential oil literature, i t is important to bear i n mind that one of the striking features about the history of research i n this field is the intermittent nature of the study made of individual oils. M o s t of the work on American peppermint oil was carried out more than 50 years ago ; and though this was b y no means definitive, the only recent work of significance has been that on the menthofurans i n the oil, a work of the late 1940's. Similarly, the major research on cinnamon bark and linaloe oils was done many years ago. I t is not always easy, i n this connection, to discover what has determined the intensity of research upon any single o i l ; there appears to be no one-to-one relationship between the importance of an oil and the total amount of work done upon it. Oil of orris root and camphor oil have been most extensively examined, while several equally important oils have never been thor oughly investigated at all, and others only very recently. English and Italian peppermint oil have not as yet been systematically studied ; and lime oil was first carefully investi gated as late as 1943, pepper oil i n 1951. For all these reasons, where any search is made, it ought to be an extensive one. Incidentally, a good many oils have probably not been mentioned i n the literature since they were initially reported, perhaps as much as 70 or 80 years ago. I t is probable that some of these may ultimately prove of value, i n which case the literature dealing with them will have to be unearthed.

Searching the Literature The literature of the essential oils is extensive and diffuse, but it is not difficult to search. The greater part of i t has been adequately indexed i n such abstract journals as In LITERATURE RESOURCES; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.

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Chemische Zentralblatt and Chemical Abstracts. In addition to these general sources there is the excellent Bericht of Schimmel & Co., of Miltitz-bei-Leipzig, which has covered the field since 1877. Since 1939 the Bericht has been published irregularly, but it continues to be the .best single abstract source in the field. A n American publication, similar but with lesser coverage, is the "Annual Report on Essential Oils Aromatic Chemicals, and Related Materials," issued by Schimmel & Co. of New Y o r k (44)There are also a number of periodicals devoted to the field of the essential oils; the bibliography at the end of this article lists these. This list is limited to those dealing exclusively with the subject; there are a great number of other journals carrying litera ture of interest to the worker in the subject—among them the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, Journal of the Chemical Society (of London), Helvetica Chimica Acta, the Bulletin of the Société Chimique de France, and Recueil des travaux chimiques des Pays-bas. N o current index of these sources exists, and the researcher must rely on general abstract journals, which are, of course, usu ally several months behind in coverage. For anyone unacquainted with the field of the essential oils the obvious start is with the general texts, notably that of Guenther, published between 1948 and 1952 (17). This is not only the most recent work on the subject, but the most comprehensive, with the further advantage of having been written by a scientist with extraordinary knowledge of market conditions, field procedures, and laboratory findings. The first volume of Guenther's series covers the origins of the oils in the plant, methods of production, and analytical procedures. The second volume is devoted to the constituents of essential oils, and constitutes the most complete text on the chemistry of this subject. The re maining four volumes of the series deal with individual oils, arranged by botanical family. Among other things, these monographs contain the most recent treatment of the cultiva tion of a great many commercially important oil-bearing plants. Perhaps the chief value of this work lies in its careful editing; every attempt has been made to check original sources, and to expunge data of doubtful usefulness. The result is a work of unusual ac curacy and of immense bibliographic value. Of the other general texts on the subject, that of Gildemeister and Hoffmann (16), the third edition of which appeared in 1928-31, is to be recommended. Though much of it has been superseded b y Guenther's work, Gildemeister and Hoffmann's series is still of i n terest for analytical procedures, production techniques, and particularly for data on les ser-known oils. The historical introduction to the first volume is the only complete history of the essential oils, and of their chemistry. For oils produced by means other than distillation, an excellent book is that of Naves and Mazuyer (21), published in 1939 i n France, and available in an English translation in 1947. This deals with oils and concretes obtained by volatile extraction or by enfleurage. In addition to these texts, a number of older sources are still of value—particularly the "Essential oils" of Finnemore (IS) and Parry's "Chemistry of the Essential Oils and Artificial Perfumes" (22). A n d among much older works, the treatises of Charabot (11, 12), Semmler (25), Wagner (33), and Wallach (34) are to be recommended, not alone for historical interest, but for their excellent bibliographies, which frequently note sources difficult to find elsewhere. For the cultivation of essential oil plants, and for the distillation and extraction of the oils, such general texts as those of Guenther and Gildemeister and Hoffmann are to be recommended, as being more complete and more recent than the other titles noted in the bibliography. M u c h of von Rechenberg's "Théorie der Gewinnung and Trennung der âtherischen Ole (10) has been brought up to date i n Guenther's second volume. For the chemistry of the oils, once again the most recent general texts are to be pre ferred ; but here there must be constant reference to current sources. For any single class of compounds found in the essential oils, the outstanding work is that of Simonsen (32), on the terpenes, sesquiterpenes, and diterpenes. Unfortunately, no other group of com pounds has recently been treated i n a single text; the older works of Wallach, on the ter penes, and of Wagner, on the aldehydes, must be supplemented by more recent material. A number of works on isolates and synthetics are noted in the bibliography.


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In this country and abroad, private and government agencies are doing excellent work in this field. Primarily, however, these are regulative, and not publishing, agencies. They are intended to work toward standardization, or the maintenance of quality, or to guard against adulteration; they seldom publish data. In the United States the chief such agency is the Essential Oil Association, which issues specifications covering essential oils, isolates, and synthetics. The bibliography contains no treatment of the literature covering the uses of essen tial oils, for the obvious reason that any such treatment would be impractical.


Bibliography An exhaustive bibliography of the essential oils would be impractical. The titles noted below are intended as a general guide only. They are listed by broad subject, at times somewhat arbitrarily. The publisher is included where the title is known to be in print. For most immediate practical problems the general texts on the subject should be consultedfirst,notably the recent work of Guenther (17). Books Botany. Any serious question of botanical nomenclature or identification should be re ferred to a botanist. The staff of the New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx Park, New York, Ν. Y., are constantly helpful and welcome inquiries. For most routine questions of classifi cation and synonymy, the following three books are to be recommended: (1) Engler, Α., "Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien," 11th ed., revised by A. Diels, 519 pages, Berlin, 1936. (2) "Index Kewensis," 12 vols., Oxford, 1895-1947. An enumeration of the genera and species of flowering plants from the time of Linnaeus to the year 1940, inclusive, together with their authors' names, the works in which they were first published, their native countries, and their synonyms. The original two volumes were published in 1895; 10 supplements carry the data through 1940. (3) Rehder, Α., "Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs Hardy in North America, Exclusive of the Subtropical and Warmer Temperate Regions,"' 996 pages, New York, Macmillan Co., 1949. Cultivation. The books noted here cover the subject generally. In addition to these titles, the works of Gildemeister and Hoffmann (16) and of Guenther (17) are to be recom mended; the latter contains the fullest and most recent treatment of the cultivation of most of the commercially important oils. (4) Craveri, C., "Coltivazione industriale delle piante aromatiche da essenze e medicinali," 307 pages, Milan, 1914. (5) Parry, J. W., "Spice Handbook. Spices, Aromatic Seeds and Herbs," 254 pages, New York, Chemical Publishing Co., 1945. (6) Ridley, Η. N., "Spices," 448 pages, London, 1912. (7) Rolet, Α., "Plantes à parfums et les plantes aromatiques," 2nd ed., 406 pages, Paris, 1930. In addition to these general works, there are a great number of monographs on the cultivation of individual oil-bearing plants. These are easily traced through the usual abstract journals. However, one title dealing with the broad group of the Citrus should be mentioned: (8) Webber, H. J., and Batchelor, L. D., "The Citrus Industry," 2 vols., Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1943-48. Methods of Production. In addition to the three titles noted below, the reader is again referred to the definitive works of Gildemeister and Hoffmann (16), Naves and Mazuyer (21), and Guenther (17). (9) Gattefossé, G. M., "Distillation des plantes aromatiques et de parfums," 153 pages, Paris, 1926. (10) Rechenberg, C. von, "Théorie der Gewinnung und Trennung der âtherischen Ole durch Destination," 751 pages, Miltitz-bei-Leipzig, 1910, "Einfache und fraktionierte Destination," 814 pages, Miltitz-bei-Leipzig, 1923. General Texts. A number of titles of historical interest are included here (although "historical" with reference to the essential oils is a relative term); many of these titles are still valuable for the lesser oils, and for data not obtainable elsewhere. (11) Charabot, E., "Les principes odorants des végétaux (méthodes de dosage, d'extraction, d'identification)," 388 pages, Paris, 1912. In LITERATURE RESOURCES; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.

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(12) Charabot, E., Dupont, J., and Pillet, L., "Les huiles essentielles et leur principaux constituants," 1002 pages, Paris, 1899. (13) Craveri, C., "Le essenze naturali (olii essenziali); estrazione; carratteri; anilisi," 2nd ed., 759 pages, Milan, 1927. (14) Durvelle, J.-P., "Fabrication des essences et des parfums. Chimie des parfums," 3rded.,808 pages, Paris, 1930. (15) Finnemore, Horace, "The Essential Oils," 880 pages, London, 1926. (16) Gildemeister, E., and Hoffmann, F., "DieätherischenÖle,"3rd ed., 3 vols., Miltitz-bei-Leipzig, 1928-31. (17) Guenther, E., "The Essential Oils," 6 vols., New York, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1948-52. (18) Jaminet, L. von, "AtherischeÖle,Riechstoffe und Riechdrogen," 180 pages, Hamburg, Cram, de Gruyter, 1949. (19) Maier, J., "DieåtherischenÖle,ihre Gewinnung, chemischen und physikalischen Eigenschaften, Zusammensetzung und Anwendung," 201 pages, Stuttgart, 1862. (20) Müllier, Α., "Internationaler Riechstoff-Index," 377 pages, Heidelberg, Hüthig, 1950. (21) Naves, Y.-R., and Mazuyer, G., "Les parfums naturels; essences; concrètes, resinoïdes, huiles et pommades," 398 pages, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1939. An English translation by E. Sagarin is available from Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1947. (22) Parry, E. J., "The Chemistry of Essential Oils and Artificial Perfumes," 2 vols., New York, 1921-22. (23) Parry, E. J., "Parry's Cyclopedia of Perfumery, A Handbook," 2 vols., London, 1925. (24) Poucher, W. Α., "Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps," 3 vols., New York, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1942. Vol. 1 is 5th ed., Vols. 2 and 3 are 6th ed. (25) Semmler, F. W., "DieätherischenÖlenach ihren chemischen Bestandteilen unter Berücksichtigung der geschichtlichen Entwicklung," 4 vols., Leipzig, 1906-7. In addition to the titles just noted, a recent Japanese book should be mentioned: (26) Fujita, Yasuji, "Fundamental Studies of Essential Oils," 627 pages, Osaka and Tokyo, Ogawa & Co., 1951. In Japanese. And one work entirely devoted to a single genus: (27) Baker, R. T., and Smith, H. G., "A Research on the Eucalypts, Especially in Regard to Their Essential Oils," 471 pages, Sydney, 1920. Isolates and Synthetics. The major work on the chemistry of the essential oils is that of Guenther (17). In addition, the books of Gildemeister and Hoffman (16), Naves and Mazuyer, (21), and Parry (22) are still useful. (28) Bedoukian, P. Z., "Perfumery Synthetics and Isolates," 488 pages, New York, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1951. (29) "Givaudan Index, Specifications of Synthetics and Isolates for Perfumery," 378 pages, New York, Givaudan-Delawanna, Inc., 1949. (30) Moncrieff, R. W., "Chemistry of Perfumery Materials," 344 pages, London, United Trade Press, 1949. (31) Sabetay, H., and Sabetay, S., "Travaux récents d'analyse et de synthèse organiques et la chimie des parfums de 1935 à 1938," 821 pages, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1941. (32) Simonsen, J. L., and Owen, L. N., "The Terpenes," 3 vols., Cambridge, University Press, 194752. (33) Wagner, Α., "Die Aldehyde," 1431 pages, Vienna, Hartleben, 1929-31. (34) Wallach, O., "Terpene and Campher," 580 pages, Leipzig, 1914. (35) West, T. F., Strausz, H. J., and Barton, D. H. R., "Synthetic Perfumes, Their Chemistry and Preparation," 380 pages, London, Edward Arnold & Co., 1949. Methods of Analysis. Here again the best source for analytical procedures is the work of Guenther (17), particularly thefirstand second volumes. The books of Gildemeister and Hoffmann (16) and Finnemore (15) are still valuable. The various pharmacopeias noted be low include methods of qualitative analysis, tests for identification and purity, and standards. (36) Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, "Methods of Analysis," 7th ed., 910 pages, Wash ington, Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, 1950. (37) British Pharmacopoeia, 1948, 914 pages, London, Constable & Co., 1948. (38) British Pharmaceutical Codex, 1949, 1562 pages, London, Pharmaceutical Press, 1949. (39) Codex Medicamentarius Gallicus, Codex Français, 1949, 1227 pages, Paris, Commission Permanente du Codex, 1949. (40) Deutsches Arzneibuch, 6th ed., 854 pages, Berlin, 1926. (41) National Formulary, 9th ed., 877 pages, Washington, American Pharmaceutical Association. 1950. (42) Pharmacopeia of the United States of America (United States Pharmacopeia), 14th revision, 1067 pages, Easton, Pa., Mack Printing Co., 1950. In LITERATURE RESOURCES; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.

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Specifications The only specifications issued in the field are published by the Essential Oil Association of U. S. Α., in New York. These now number 61, covering oils, isolates, and aromatic chemicals. Abstract Journals


In addition to the regular general abstract publications, such as Chemical Abstracts, Chemisches Zentralblatt, and Biological Abstracts, two publications are devoted exclusively to the field of the essential oils.

(43) Bericht von Variochem VVB Schimmel, MiUitz-bei-Leipzig, uber âtherische Ole, R usw. Leipzig, 1877-. This is the recent title of the famous Schimmel Bericht, which was issued variously as an annual or biannual report from 1877 to 1944/47; the new title dates from 1948. (44) "Annual Report on Essential Oils, Aromatic Chemicals, and Related Materials," New York, Schimmel & Co., 1945—. Periodicals Dead titles are not included here, nor are general titles which cover the essential oils as part of a broader treatment.

(45)ÄtherischeÖle,Riechstoffe, Parfümerien, Essenzen und Aromen, Hannover. Monthly. (46) American Perfumer, New York. Monthly. (47) Bollettino ufficiale delta stazione sperimentale per l'industria delle essenze e dei deriva in Reggio Calabria, Italy. Quarterly. (48) Drug and Cosmetic Industry, New York. Monthly. (49) Givaudanian, New York, monthly. House organ of Givaudan-Delawanna, Inc., New York. (50) Industrie de la Parfumerie, Paris. Monthly. (51) International Perfumer, London. Quarterly. (52) Parfumerie und Kosmetik, Heidelberg. Monthly. (53) Parfumerie moderne, Paris. Monthly. (54) Parfums de France, Paris. Monthly. (55) Perfumery and Essential Oil Record, London. Monthly. (56) Rivista italiana delle essenze, profumi, piante officinali, olii vegetali, saponi, Mila (57) Seife,Öle,Fette, Wåchse, Augsburg. Monthly. (58) Soap, Perfumery and Cosmetics, London. Monthly. RECEIVED October 14, 1952. Presented before the Division of Chemical Literature at the 122nd Meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, Atlantic City, N. J.


The Literature of the Essential Oils - Advances in Chemistry (ACS

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