40 EUCALYPTS CULTIVATED IN THE UNITED STATES. 



clients is eucalyptol, which constitutes about 60 per cent of the oil 

 from the Blue Gum. 



The medicinal properties of the various component parts of eucalyp- 

 tus oil differ widely. Hence the oils from different species have very 

 different medicinal values. Unless eucalyptol, the chief ingredient of 

 Blue Gum oil, has the same effect upon the human system as phelland- 

 rene, the prominent ingredient of the Peppermint Tree oil, the oils 

 from these two trees must necessarily have different medicinal proper- 

 ties, and the oil from a forest of mixed species must have very uncertain 

 medicinal properties. The Eucalyptus oil produced in America, where 

 the groves from which leaves are obtained for oil are commonly of one 

 species, and where, with rare exceptions, a single species (Blue Gum) 

 is the source of all the oil extracted, will necessarily be a product 

 whose properties are better known and more constant than that pro- 

 duced from mixed native forests. Hence the importation of eucalyp- 

 tol or Eucalyptus oil from Australia or elsewhere is both unnecessary 

 and a disadvantage to the consumer. As Hon. Abbot Kinney remarks 

 in his ''Eucalyptus"': 



The increased use of tin- eucalyptus oils derived from the solid plantations of 

 E. globulus in California and Algiers is thus seen to rest upon reasonahle grounds and 

 must give increased reliability to medicinal preparations from the Eucalyptus. 



Eucalyptus oil is so useful, and popular information concerning it is 

 so meager, that a few words concerning it will not be out of place here. 

 This oil has been used for about forty years, but only during the past 

 ten years has it been employed in medicine very extensively. Its use 

 is now constantly increasing, as its properties and medicinal value 

 become better known. All druggists questioned on the subject stated 

 that the demand for Eucalyptus oil was rapidly increasing. Two 

 wholesale druggists of Los Angeles both stated in. letters to the writer, 

 written in response to inquiries on this point, that their sales of 'the 

 oil had increased very much during the past few years. 



The fact that it is nonpoisonous and nonirritant makes it especially 

 safe and valuable. As much as a fourth of an ounce has been taken 

 internally without injury, and it may be freely applied to the most 

 delicate tissue. Notwithstanding the fact that it is neither danger- 

 ously poisonous nor irritating to the human system, it is a very effective 

 antiseptic and disinfectant, and has come to be used quite extensively 

 for dressing wounds, ulcers, and other diseased tissues. It enters into 

 the- composition of several antiseptic preparations. The oil is also a 

 well-known remedy for malarial and other fevers, and is used in treat- 

 ing diseases of the skin, and of the stomach, kidneys, and bladder, and 

 is especially valuable for affections of the throat, bronchi, and lungs. 



In using Eucalyptus oil it is important that a pure article be pro- 

 cured. Unfortunately there is considerable adulteration of this oil 

 with cheaper, inert, or harmful ones. No doubt this remedy would 



