The Chemistry of Eucalyptus Oils

In the last issue of Environment I gave a brief popular description of the commercially valuable Eucalypts and the important essential oils obtained from their leaves and terminal branchlets. I also discussed how these oils could he obtained and the many and varied uses to which they conld be applied. The valuable uses and properties of Eucalyptus Oils-a typically Australian product have not been appreciated to the extent they merit, probably due to lack of publicity. It is confidently anticipated that considerable interest will have been aroused by the information made available in the June issue of Environment. The Editor suggested the possibility of some interested readers developing a desire for additional information about the chemistry of Eucalyptus Oils. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to give those readers thirsty for increased knowledge some data about some of the many interesting substances which have been isolated from Eucalyptus Oils. The information will be of a more advanced nature, but I shall endeavour to describe the chemistry of these interesting substances in a simple and popular manner. The following table describes the species which yield the present day Eucalyptus Oils of commerce and the districts in which they occur in abundance. In the first article, I selected a range of these species and briefly described their habitat and the nature of the essential oils obtained from them. The list now furnished, however, is a complete one