STAE ANISE. 175 



Yokosuka; in large quantities upon the island of Hachijo, in the 

 province of Izu ; and in the provinces of Sagami, Enshu, Tamba, 

 Musashi, Hizen, Chozhu, &c. The leaves are considered to be 

 poisonous, and instances of poisoning therewith are on record.* 



In the unripe condition the fruit is green and juicy, and 

 contains much essential oil. When ripe it opens rapidly length- 

 ways along the upper side in the same manner as the Chinese 

 fruit. The yield of oil from the ripe fruit is estimated at one per 

 cent., but it is different in odour to that of the Chinese, resemblino^ 

 a mixture of Laurus nohilis, cloves and nutmeg. The number of 

 carpels is eight, as in the Chinese anioe ; the entire fruit is about 

 one-third less in diameter than this last, is of a paler yellow-brown 

 colour, more shiny and more w^oody ; the carpels much shrunk in 

 upon one another and wrinkledf; only a few of them are generally 

 developed at maturity ; the curve or depression on the ventral 

 suture near the apex is deeper and shorter, and hence the very 

 short beak appears more erect than in the Chinese drug. 



Information respecting the essential oil of the leaves of Illicium 

 religiosum w^as furnished by Eijkman in the memoir above referred 

 to. He found that "on submitting 40 kilos of fresh leaves to 

 steam distillation and cohobation, he obtained 177 grams of 

 essential oil, or nearly 044 per cent.:|: The oil was strongly 

 refractive, nearly colourless, or faintly yellow, and becoming 

 darker on keeping. Its sp. gr. was 1'006 at 16^-5 C. Its odour 

 recalled that of a mixture of laurel, camphor, cajuput and nutmeg, 

 the last being especially perceptible in the aqueous distillate. The 

 peppermint-like odour ascribed by some authors to the " shikimi " 

 leaves was not observed either in the essential oil or distilled 

 water, or in the slightly bruised leaves. 



As a result of subsequent investigation, Eijkman reports that 

 the volatile oil of the leaves consists of Eugenol and two 

 constituents that he calls shikimol and shikimene. Shikimol is 

 represented by the formula C^oHioO^, boils at 229° to 231° C, 

 and is apparently identical with safrol Shikimene is a hydro- 



* Pliarm. Journ. [3], xi., p. 1046. 



t Eijkman in Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesselschaft fiir Natur und 

 A^olkeikunde Ostasieus, xiii., Yokohama, 1881. 



X Recueil des travaux chimiques des Pays Bas, i., p. 32 and 985. 



