The essential oil of Acradenia franklinii

The C.S.I.R.O. isolated two crystalline compounds from the leaves of Acradenia franklinii, a shrub endemic to Tasmania. These two compounds, designated A & B, were investigated by Dr. A. A. Komzak of the University of Tasmania, and he showed that compound B was identical with Methyl allo evodional, which occurs naturally in Queensland tree Evodia elleryana which grows in the region round Mackay. Komzak also isolated a small amount of a third crystalline compound, C, and made some preliminary investigation on it. The work undertaken this year was an attempt to find further information about the nature of compound A, and also compound C. The chief difficulty in this work was the isolation of the two compounds, more particularly A, in sufficient quantities. This thesis is divided into five sections. Section I deals with the the general properties and extraction of the essential oil of Acradenia franklinii. Section II deals with the isolation of compounds A and C from the essential oil of Acradenia franklinii. Section III contains a summary of the know information on compound A and an account of the oxidation of compound A. Section lV contains an account of the structure of compound C. Section V deals with the erection of a high efficiency fractionating column.