NOTES ON CANANGA OIL OR ILANG-ILANG OIL.
[Footnote: From the Archiv der Pharmacie.]
By F. A. FLÜCKIGER.
This oil, on account of its fragrance, which is described by most observers as extremely pleasant, has attained to some importance, so that it appears to me not superfluous to submit the following remarks upon it and the plant from which it is derived.
The tree, of which the flowers yield the oil known under the name "Ilang-ilang" or "Alanguilan," is the Cananga odorata, Hook. fil. et Thomp.,[1] of the order Unonaceæ, for which reason it is called also in many price lists "Oleum Anonæ," or "Oleum Unonæ" It is not known to me whether the tree can be identified in the old Indian and Chinese literature.[2] In the west it was first named by Ray as "Arbor Saguisan," the name by which it was called at that time at Luçon[3] Rump[4] gave a detailed description of the "Bonga Cananga," as the Malays designate the tree ("Tsjampa" among the Javanese); Rumph's figure, however is defective. Further, Lamarck[5] has short notices of it under "Canang odorant, Uvaria odorata." According to Roxburgh,[6] the plant was in 1797 brought from Sumatra to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta. Dunal devoted to the Ucaria odorata, or, properly, Unona odorata, as he himself corrected it, a somewhat more thorough description in his "Monographic de la Famille des Anonacees,"[7] which principally repeats Rumph's statements.
[Footnote 1: "Flora Indica," i (1855), 130.]
[Footnote 2: "No mention of any plant or flowers, which might be identified with Cananga, can be traced in any Sanskrit works."--Dr. Charles Rice, New Remedies, April, 1881, page 98.]
[Footnote 3: Ray. "Historia Plantarum, Supplementum," tomi i et ii "Hist. Stirpium Insulæ Luzonensis et Philippinarum" a Georgio Josepho Canello; London, 1704, 83]
[Footnote 4: "Herbarium Amboinense, Amboinsch Kruidboek," ii. (Amsterdam, 1750), cap. xix, fol. 195 and tab. 65.]
[Footnote 5: "Encyclopédie méthodique. Botanique," i (1783), 595.]
[Footnote 6: "Flora Indica," ii. (Serampore, 1832), 661.]
[Footnote 7: Paris, 1817, p. 108, 105.]
Lastly, we owe a very handsome figure of the Cananga odorata to the magnificent "Flora Javæ," of Blume;[1] a copy of this, which in the original is beautifully colored, is appended to the present notice. That this figure is correct I venture to assume after having seen numerous specimens in Geneva, with De Candolle, as well as in the Delessert herbarium. The unjustifiable name Unona odoratissima, which incorrectly enough has passed into many writings, originated with Blanco,[2] who in his description of the powerful fragrance of the flowers, which in a closed sleeping room produces headache, was induced to use the superlative "odoratissima." Baillon[3] designated as Canangium the section of the genus Uvaria, from which he would not separate the Ilang-ilang tree.
[Footnote 1: Vol. i. (Brussels, 1829), fol. 29, tab ix et xiv. B.]
[Footnote 2: "Flora de Filipinas," Manila, 1845, 325. Unona odoratissima, Alang-ilan. The latter name, according to Sonnerat, is stated by the Lamarck to be of Chinese origin; Herr Reymann derives it from the Tagal language.]
[Footnote 3: "Dictionnaire de Botanique.">[
CANAGA ODORATA
The notice of Maximowicz,[1] "Ueber den Ursprung des Parfums Ylang-Ylang," contains only a confirmation of the derivation of the perfume from Cananga.
[Footnote 1: Just's "Botanischer Jahresbericht," 1875, 973.]
Cananga odorata is a tree attaining to a height of 60 feet, with few but abundantly ramified branches. The shortly petioled long acuminate leaves, arranged in two rows, attain a length of 18 centimeters and a breadth of 7 centimeters; the leaf is rather coriaceous, and slightly downy only along the nerves on the under side. The handsome and imposing looking flowers of the Cananga odorata occur to the number of four on short peduncles. The lobes of the tripartite leathery calyx are finally bent back. The six lanceolate petals spread out very nearly flat, and grow to a length of 7 centimeters and a breadth of about 12 millimeters; they are longitudinally veined, of a greenish color, and dark brown when dried. The somewhat bell-shaped elegantly drooping flowers impart quite a handsome appearance, although the floral beauty of other closely allied plants is far more striking. The filaments of the Cananga are very numerous; the somewhat elevated receptacle has a shallow depression at the summit. The green berry-like fruit is formed of from fifteen to twenty tolerably long stalked separate carpels which inclose three to eight seeds arranged in two rows. The umbel-like peduncles are situated in the axils of the leaves or spring from the nodes of leafless branches. The flesh of the fruit is sweetish and aromatic. The flowers possess a most exquisite perfume, frequently compared with hyacinth, narcissus, and cloves.
Cananga odorata, according to Hooker and Thomson or Bentham and Hooker,[1] is the only species of this genus; the plants formerly classed together with it under the names Unona or Uvaria, among which some equally possess odorous flowers, are now distributed between those two genera, which are tolerably rich in species. From Uvaria the Cananga differs in its valvate petals, and from Unona in the arrangement of the seeds in two rows.
[Footnote 1: "Genera Plantarum," i, (1864), 24.]
Cananga odorata is distributed throughout all Southern Asia, mostly, however, as a cultivated plant. In the primitive forest the tree is much higher, but the flowers are, according to Blume, almost odorless. In habit the Cananga resembles the Michelia champaca, L.,[1] of the family Magnoliaceæ, an Indian tree extraordinarily prized on account of the very pleasant perfume of its yellow flowers, and which was already highly celebrated in ancient times in India. Among the admired fragrant flowers which are the most prized by the in this respect pampered Javanese, the "Tjempaka" (Michelia champaca) and the "Kenangga wangi" (Cananga odorata)[2] stand in the first rank.
[Footnote 1: A beautiful figure of this also is given in Blume's "Flora Javæ," iii., Magnoliaceæ, tab. I.]
[Footnote 2: Junghuhn, Java, Leipsic, 1852, 166.]
It is not known to me whether the oil of cananga was prepared in former times. It appears to have first reached Europe about 1864; in Paris and London its choice perfume found full recognition.[1] The quantities, evidently only very small, that were first imported from the Indian Archipelago were followed immediately by somewhat larger consignments from Manila, where German pharmacists occupied themselves with the distillation of the oil.[2]
[Footnote 1: Jahresbericht d. Pharmacie, by Wiggers and Husemann, 1867, 422.]
[Footnote 2: Jahresbericht, 1868, 166.]
Oscar Reymann and Adolf Ronsch, of Manila, exhibited the ilang-ilang oil in Paris in 1878; the former also showed the Cananga flowers. The oil of the flowers of the before-mentioned Michelia champaca, which stood next to it, competes with the cananga oil, or ilang-ilang oil, in respect to fragrance.[1] How far the latter has found acceptance is difficult to determine; a lowering of the price which it has undergone indicates probably a somewhat larger demand. At present it may be obtained in Germany for about 600 marks (£30) the kilogramme.[2] Since the Cananga tree can be so very easily cultivated in all warm countries, and probably everywhere bears flowers endowed with the same pleasant perfume, it must be possible for the oil to be produced far more cheaply, notwithstanding that the yield is always small.[3] It may be questioned whether the tree might not, for instance, succeed in Algeria, where already so many exotic perfumery plants are found.
[Footnote 1: Archiv der Pharmacie, ccxiv. (1879), 18.]
[Footnote 2: According to information kindly supplied by Herr Reymann, in Paris, Nice, and Grasse, annually about 200 kilogrammes are used; in London about 50 kilogrammes, and equally as much in Germany (Leipsic, Berlin, Frankfort).]
[Footnote 3: 25 grammes of oil from 5 kilogrammes of flowers, according to Reymann.]
According to Guibourt,[1] the "macassar oil," much prized in Europe for at least some decades as a hair oil, is a cocoa nut oil digested with the flowers of Cananga odorata and Michelia champaca, and colored yellow by means of turmeric. In India unguents of this kind have always been in use.
[Footnote 1: Histoire Naturelle des Drogues Simples, iii. (1850), 675.]
The name "Cananga" is met with in Germany as occurring in former times. An "Oleum destillatum Canangæ" is mentioned by the Leipsic apothecary, Joh. Heinr. Linck[1] among "some new exotics" in the "Sammlung von Naturund Medicin- wie, auch hierzu gehorigen Kunst- und Literatur Geschichten, so sich Anno 1719 in Schlesien und andern Ländern begeben" (Leipsic und Budissin, 1719). As, however, the fruit of the same tree sent together with this cananga oil is described by Linck as uncommonly bitter, he cannot probably here refer to the present Cananga odorata, the fruit-pulp of which is expressly described by Humph and by Blume as sweetish. Further an "Oleum Canangæ, Camel-straw oil," occurs in 1765 in the tax of Bremen and Verden.[2] It may remain undetermined whether this oil actually came from "camel-straw," the beautiful grass Andropogon laniger.
[Footnote 1: Compare Flückiger, "Pharmakognosic," 2d edit, 1881, p. 152.]
[Footnote 2: Flückiger, "Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmacie," Halle (1876), p 93.]
From a chemical point of view cananga oil has become interesting because of the information given by Gal,[1] that it contains benzoic acid, no doubt in the form of a compound ether. So far as I, at the moment, remember the literature of the essential oils, this occurrence of benzoic acid in plants stands alone,[2] although in itself it is not surprising, and probably the same compound will yet be frequently detected in the vegetable kingdom. As it was convenient to test the above statement by an examination I induced Herr Adolf Convert, a pharmaceutical student from Frankfort-On-Main, to undertake an investigation of ilang-ilang oil in that direction. The oil did not change litmus paper moistened with alcohol. A small portion distilled at 170° C.; but the thermometer rose gradually to 290°, and at a still higher temperature decomposition commenced. That the portions passing over below 290° had a strong acid reaction already indicated the presence of ethers. Herr Convert boiled 10 grammes of the oil with 20 grammes of alcohol and 1 gramme of potash during one day in a retort provided with a return condenser. Finally the alcohol was separated by distillation, the residue supersaturated with dilute sulphuric acid, and together with much water submitted to distillation until the distillate had scarcely an acid reaction. The liquid that had passed over was neutralized with barium carbonate, and the filtrate concentrated, when it yielded crystals, which were recognized as nearly pure acetate. The acid residue, which contained the potassium sulphate, was shaken with ether; after the evaporation of the ether there remained a crystalline mass having an acid reaction which was colored violet with ferric chloride. This reaction, which probably may be ascribed to the account of a phenol, was absent after the recrystallization of the crystalline mass from boiling water. The aqueous solution of the purified crystalline scales then gave with ferric chloride only a small flesh-colored precipitate. The crystals melted at 120° C. In order to demonstrate the presence of benzoic acid Herr Convert boiled the crystals with water and silver oxide and dried the scales that separated from the cooling filtrate over sulphuric acid. 0.0312 gramme gave upon combustion 0.0147 gramme of silver, or 47.1 per cent. The benzoate of silver contains 46.6 per cent, of metal; the crystals prepared from the acid of ilang-ilang oil were, therefore, benzoate of silver. For the separation of the alcoholic constituent, which is present in the form of an apparently not very considerable quantity of benzoic ether, far more ilang-ilang oil would be required than was at command.
[Footnote 1: Comptes Rendus, lxxvi. (1873), 1428, and abstracted in the Pharmaceutical Journal [3], iv., p. 28; also in Jahresbericht, 1873, p. 431.]
[Footnote 2: Overlooking Peru balsam and Tolu balsam.]
Besides the benzoic ether and, probably, a phenol, mentioned above, there may be recognized in ilang-ilang oil an aldehyde or ketone, inasmuch as upon shaking it with bisulphite of sodium I observed the formation of a very small quantity of crystals. That Gal did not obtain the like result must at present remain unexplained. Like the benzoic acid the acetic acid is, no doubt, present in cananga oil in the form of ether.