Volume 1
A dictionary of applied chemistry / by Sir Edward Thorpe, assisted by eminent contributors.
- Thomas Edward Thorpe
- Date:
- 1912-1913
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of applied chemistry / by Sir Edward Thorpe, assisted by eminent contributors. Source: Wellcome Collection.
13/776
![A \ DICTIONARY OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY. AAL, A'L, ACH, AI CH. Native names for the roots of Morinda tinctoria and M. citrifolia, employed in various parts of India, under the general trade name of Suranji, as a dyestuff, more especially for dyeing reds, purples, and chocolates. ABACA. A species of fibre derived from Musa textilis (Nee), obtained mainly from the Philippine Islands, and used in the manu¬ facture of mats, cordage, &c. It is also known under other names, including ‘ Manilla hemp,’ ‘ Menado hemp,’ ‘ Cebu hemp,’ ‘ Siam hemp,’ and ‘ White rope.’ Less valuable fibres are obtained from other species of Musa, such as M. sapientum (Linn.), the banana and plantain, which yield banana fibre and plantain fibre. ABIES. The generic name of the Silver Firs. A. alba (Mill.) [A. pectinata (DC.)] furnishes timber very similar to the white deal of Picea excelsa, the common spruce. It is the source of ‘Strasburg turpentine,’ containing free abienic, abietric, and a- and fS-ahietinolic acids? and an amorphous substance abietoresen, an ethereal oil of agreeable aromatic odour, a bitter principle and colouring matter (Tschirch und Weigel, Arch. Pharm. 1900, 238, 411). A. Canadensis is the source of Canada balsam, which contains canadic, canadolic, and a- and f}- canadinolic acids, an ethereal oil, canadoresen; and small quantities of succinic acid and a bitter substance. The acids contain no methoxyl groups and give the cholesterol reactions, in¬ cluding that of Tschugaeff (lx. 1900, 238, 487). ABIETENE. A hydrocarbon obtained by distilling the terebinthinate exudation of Finns sab}niana (Doug.), a coniferous tree indigenous to California, and growing on the dry slopes of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and on the hills along the coast, and known locally as the Nut pine or Digger pine. To procure the exudation, the tree during winter is notched and guttered at a con¬ venient height from the ground, and the resin on distillation yields the liquid hydrocarbon. The crude oil was met with in San Francisco as an article of commerce under the names of ‘ Abie- tene,’ ‘ Erasine,’ ‘ Aurantine,’ and ‘ Thioline,’ Vol. I.—T, and was used for removing grease-spots, paint- stains, &c., from clothing. It is a nearly colour¬ less mobile liquid of powerful aromatic smell, recalling that of oil of oranges. Abietene has been shown by Thorpe to consist almost entirely of normal heptane, C7H13, mixed with a small quantity of a resin to which its characteristic smell of orange oil is due (Thorpe, Chem. Soc. Trans. 35, 296 ; Schorlemmer and Thorpe, Phil. Trans. 174, 269 ; v. also Blasdale, J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 1901, 162). Abietene is also the name given to the hydro¬ carbon which is obtained as an oil by the reduc¬ tion of abietic acid (q.v.) (Easterfield and Bagley, Chem. Soc. Trans. 1904, 1238 ; Kraemer and Spilker, Ber. 1899, 2953, 3614). Its formula is C18H28, and it is probably decahydroretene, as, when carefully purified, and reduced with phosphorus and hydriodic acid, it yields a fluorescent hydrocarbon identical with the do- decahydroretene of Liebermann and Spiegel (Ber. 1889, 780). ABIETIC ACID. An acid obtained by digesting colophony with dilute alcohol and recrystallising the product from methyl alcohol (Maly, Annalen, 129, 54; 132, 249); or by saturating an alcoholic solution of colophony with hydrogen chloride and subsequently recrystallising the product (Fliickiger, J. 1867, 727). It can also be obtained by distilling colophony under reduced pressure or with superheated steam (Easterfield and Bagley, Chem. Soc. Trans. 1904, 1238). It occurs in resin spirit, from which it may be obtained by extraction with ether, shaking with sodium carbonate solution and then acidifying with acid. It is obtained in a purer condition by recrystallising from acetic acid ; m.p. 166°-167° (Tschirch and Wollf, Arch. Pharm. 1907, 1) ; 153°-154° (Mach, Monatsh. 1893, 186). Accord¬ ing to Easterfield and Bagley and Mach, it is a derivative of phenanthrene, and has the formula C19H2802, whilst Levy (Ber. 1906, 3043), Koritschoner (J. Soc. Chem. Ind. 1907, 641), Fahrion (J. Soc. Chem. Ind. 1907, 264), and Vesterberg (Ber. 1907, 120) represent its com¬ position as C20H30O2. According to Strecker B V](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31355080_0001_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
