Preliminary to the detailed chemical examination of the oil the usual
chemical constants were determined.
By neutralization of a weighed quantity of the oil with standard
potassium hydroxid V. S., the acid number (the number of milligrams of
potassium hydrate required to neutralize 1 gram of oil) was found to be
2.
The ester number (the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxid
required to saponify the esters in the oil) was found to be 2.5, which,
calculated as bornyl acetate, corresponds to 0.88 per cent.
The ester number after acetylization of the saponified oil with acetic
anhydrid (and which represents the total amount of alcohols present)
was 27.1, which, calculated as borneol, represents a total of 7.58 per
cent of borneol in the oil, both free and in combination.