JUNIPER 593 



equal parts of eucalyptol, carbolic acid, and salicylic acid, 

 has been recommended as an intestinal antiseptic. 



JUNIPER 



OLEUM JUNIPERI. Oil of juniper. The oil distilled from 



the full-grown, unripe, green fruit of Juniperus com- 



munis. 

 SPIRITUS JUNIPERI. Spirit of Juniper. A solution of the 



oil in alcohol (90 per cent.) (B.P.). Nat. Ord. 



Coniferae. 



The junipers are shrubby evergreen trees, growing in most 

 temperate countries. Their leaves are dark-green, linear 

 and arranged three in a whorl. Juniper berries are bluish- 

 purple, furrowed, of the size and appearance of currants ; 

 have an aromatic, terebinthinate odour, and a warm, 

 sweet taste, followed by bitterness. For flavouring gin 

 about two pounds of the berries are added to one hundred 

 gallons of spirit. They owe their distinctive properties to 

 about 2 per cent, of a mixture of two volatile oils, one of 

 which is polymeric with terpene (C 10 H 16 ). 



The fresh and dried tops of Juniperus sabina yield oil of 

 savin, which is sometimes used as an ecbolic. From the 

 wood of the Juniperus oxycedrus, and occasionally from 

 that of the communis, the brown empyreumatic oil of cade 

 is got by dry distillation. It is used in France and other 

 continental countries for most of the purposes of oil of tar, 

 and is recommended in scaly skin diseases. 



ACTIONS AND USES. The fruit, oil, and spirit of common 

 juniper are topical irritants, and when absorbed are stimu- 

 lant, stomachic, carminative, and diuretic. They resemble 

 the turpentines, and thuja, or arbor vitae. 



Two ounces of the berries given to horses and cattle have 

 little notable effect ; but three to four ounces induce 

 diuresis. The fruit and oil are occasionally given as diuretics, 

 stomachics, and carminatives in indigestion and flatulence, 

 and are stated to diminish the evil effects of bad fodder and 

 marshy pastures, and to aid alike the prevention and cure 

 of ascites in sheep. This is probably on account of their 



2p 



