The making Of Essence Of Pine Apple
The above essence is, as already known, butyric ether more or less diluted with alcohol; to obtain which pure, on the large scale and economically, the following process is recommended:
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Dissolve 6 lbs. of sugar and half an ounce of tartaric acid, in 26 lbs. of boiling water. Let the solution stand for several days; then add 8 ounces of putrid cheese broken up with 3 lbs. of skimmed and curdled sour milk and 3 lbs. of levigated chalk.
The mixture should be kept and stirred daily in a warm place, at the temperature of about 92° Fahr., as long as gas is evolved, which is generally the case for five or six weeks.
The liquid thus obtained, is mixed with an equal volume of cold water, and 8 lbs. of crystallized carbonate of soda, previously dissolved in water, added.
It is then filtered from the precipitated carbonate of lime; the filtrate is to be evaporated down to 10 lbs., when 5-1/2 lbs. of sulphuric acid, previously diluted with an equal weight of water, are to be carefully added.
The butyric acid, which separates on the surface of the liquid as a dark-colored oil, is to be removed, and the rest of the liquid distilled; the distillate is now neutralized with carbonate of soda, and the butyric acid separated as before, with sulphuric acid.
The whole of the crude acid is to be rectified with the addition of an ounce of sulphuric acid to every pound. The distillate is then saturated with fused chloride of calcium, and redistilled. The product will be about 28 ounces of pure butyric acid.
To prepare the butyric acid or essence of pine-apple, from this acid proceed as follows:
—Mix, by weight, three parts of butyric acid with six parts of alcohol, and two parts of sulphuric acid in a retort, and submit the whole, with a sufficient heat, to a gentle distillation, until the fluid which passes over ceases to emit a fruity odor.
By treating the distillate with chloride of calcium, and by its redistillation, the pure ether may be obtained.
The boiling-point of butyric ether is 238° Fahr. Its specific gravity, 0.904, and its formula,
C12H12O4, or C4H5O + C8H7O3.
Bensch's process, above described, for the production of butyric acid, affords a remarkable exemplification of the extraordinary transformations that organic bodies undergo in contact with ferment, or by catalytic action.
When cane sugar is treated with tartaric acid, especially under the influence of heat, it is converted into grape sugar. This grape sugar, in the presence of decomposing nitrogenous substances, such as cheese, is transformed in the first instance into lactic acid, which combines with the lime of the chalk.
The acid of the lactate of lime, thus produced, is by the further influence of the ferment changed into butyric acid.
Hence, butyrate of lime is the final result of the catalytic action in the process we have here recommended.
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