FRUCTUS AJOWAN. n03 



older writers on materia medica. It is however probable tliat they are 

 the Ammi which Anguillara^ met with in 1549 at Yen ice, where it had 

 then, exceptionally, been imported in small quantity from Alexandria. 



itm of Lnbcl (1571), in whose 

 time the drug was likewise imported from Egypt, as well as tlie Ammi 

 ((Jterum iwrviim, the seed of which Dodonseus (1583) mentions as 

 being " minutissimum, acre et fervidum." Dale," who says it is brought 

 from Alexandria, reports it as very scarce in the London shops. Under 

 the name of Ajave Seeds, the drug was again brought iutu notice in 

 1773 by Percival,^ who received a small quantity of it from Jfalabar as 

 a remedy for cholic ; and still more recently, it has been favourably 

 si)oken of by Fleming, Ainslie, Koxburgh, O'Shaughnessy, Waring and 

 other writers who have treated of Indian materia medica. 



Description — Ajowan fruits, like those of other cultivated Umhelli- 

 fircv, vary somewhat in size and form. The largest kind much re- 

 semble those of parsley, being of about the same shape and weight. 

 •The length of the lai^ge fruits is about iV? ^^ the smaller form scarcely 

 tV of an inch. The fruits are grejdsh brown, plump, very rough on the 

 .surface, owing to numerous minute tubercles (fructus muriculatv"). 

 Each mericarp has five prominent ridges, the intervening channels 

 being dark brown, with a single vitta in each. The commissural side 

 bears two vittse. The fruits when rubbed exhale a strong odour of 

 thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.), and have a biting aromatic taste. 



Microscopic Structure— The oil-ducts of ajowan are very largo, 

 often attaining a diameter of 200 mkm. The ridges contain numerous 

 spiral vessels ; the blunt tubercles of the epidermis are of the same 

 structure as those in anise, but comparatively larger and not pointed. 

 The tissue of the albumen exhibits numerous crystalloid granules of 

 albuminous matter (aleuron), distinctly observable in polarized light. 



Chemical Composition— The fruits on an average afford from 4 to 

 4-5 per cent, of an agreeable aromatic, volatile oil ; at the same time 

 there often collects on the surface of the distilled water a crystalline 

 substance, which is prepared at Oojein and elsewhere in Central India, 

 V exposing the oil to spontaneous evaporation at a low temperature. 

 This stearoptene, sold in the shops of Poona and other places of the 

 Ijeccan, under the name o^ Ajivahi-ha-phul, i.e. floiccrs of 



Haines (1856) to be identical with 



roH 



^ We obtained it by exposing oil of our own distillation, first rectified 

 from chloride of calcium, to a temperature of 0° C, when the oil de- 

 posited 36 per cent, of thymol in superb tabular crystals, an inch or 

 ttiore in length. The liqui'd portion, even after long exposure to a cold 

 some degrees below the freezing point, yielded no further crop. \\ e 

 found the thymol thus obtained began to melt at 44 C yet using 

 somewhat larger quantities, it appeared to require fully ol C for coiu- 

 Plete fusion. On cooling, it continues fluid for a long time, and only 

 ^ecrystallizes when a crystal of thymol is projected into it. 



iSemplici, Vinegia, 1561 UO ^Essays, Medical and Experimental, ii. 



^Wmacofoi7ia, 1693. 211, * (1773)226. 



