Templin oil (Kienoel) (oleum pini, ol. templinum) is obtained chiefly in some sections of Switzerland and Tyrol by distilling the wood, branches, leaves, cones, etc., with water. It has a lemon-like odor; specific gravity, 0.860 to 0.880; boiling point, 320° to 327° F., and is laevorotatory.
Balsam-pine oil (oleum abietis canadensis) is obtained in Canada from the branches of Abies balsamea, D. C. It has a slightly yellowish color, a very agreeable and refreshing odor; specific gravity, 0.902; boiling point at 320° to 330.8° F., and turns polarized light to the right.
Of the different varieties of oil of turpentine mentioned only pine oil and dwarf pine oil are used in perfumery.
Oils of turpentine must be kept carefully protected from light and air. When badly kept they gradually become resinous with formation of formic and acetic acids. When exposed to the air oil of turpentine absorbs ozone; with iodine it detonates violently. When brought in contact with a mixture of concentrated sulphuric acid and nitric acid it ignites.
Verbena, oil of, from the lemon verbena, Aloysia citriodora, Hooker. The plant is cultivated in the gardens of Grasse. The oil is extracted from the leaves by distillation in August, but on account of its high price is almost out of market, it being everywhere substituted by the oil of lemon grass, Andropogon citratus.
Violet, oil of.—The perfume of the violet, Viola odorata, natural order Violaceæ, is due to a volatile oil of a green color and of such a penetrating odor as to cause headache; it acquires the agreeable odor of the violet only by strong dilution. The violet farms from whence the flowers are procured for the production of the oil, are very extensive at Nice and in the neighborhood of Florence. The oil is only obtained by the absorption process, all other methods to procure it having failed up to this time. It is scarcely obtainable in commerce, as the French manufacturers, who prepare the greater part of it, use the very small yield for manufacturing fine perfumery.
Vitivert or vetiver oil (oleum iva ranchusa) from the so-called cuscus, the rhizome of an Indian grass, Anathereum muricatum. The oil is obtained by distillation, either from the fresh root in India, or from the imported dried root in Europe. The yield is very small. The oil is thickly-fluid, of a red-brown color, and has an intense, but agreeable odor very much like that of oil of orris root. Like the latter, it possesses the valuable property of diffusing a lasting perfume. Its value can only be judged by the odor, and hence it should only be purchased from a thoroughly reliable firm.
Wintergreen oil (oleum gaultheriæ) is obtained by distillation from the wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, a plant common in North America. It is thickly fluid, yellowish green to gold yellow, of a sweetish, aromatic, pungent taste and penetrating, narcotic odor, which becomes agreeable only by strongly diluting the oil. By rectification the oil becomes entirely colorless. Its specific gravity is 1.170 to 1.190 (according to Gladstone, 1.142). It is sparingly soluble in water, but readily so in alcohol, ether, chloroform, etc. The aqueous or dilute alcoholic solution is colored deep violet by ferric chloride.
Wintergreen oil boils at 392° F.; the boiling point, however, soon rises to 431.6° F., when it remains constant. Between 392° and 428° F. a terpene (C10H16) constituting about 1/10 of the oil distils off; the rest corresponds to the composition C8H8O3; it is methyl salicylate
| = | C6H4 | ┌OH └CO.OCH3. |