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.