54 OIL OF THYME. 



ON OIL OF THYME, COMMONLY SOLD AS OIL OF 

 OKIGANUM. 



185O. THE vast number of plants included in the botanical order 

 of Labiatce, and the very close alliance of many, render it not 

 surprising that the history of their essential oils should in a 

 few instances be involved in a degree of confusion or doubt. 

 Nor is this the less to be wondered at, when we reflect on the 

 great similarity of many of these oils, our imperfect means of 

 distinguishing them and of ascertaining their purity, the 

 unavoidable alteration produced on some by extraction, to 

 say nothing of differences arising from locality, or from want 

 of care in conducting the process of distillation. 



The essential oil which I propose to submit to notice at this 

 time, is not one of importance to medicine ; yet having had 

 the opportunity of visiting the district where it is obtained, I 

 have elicited a few facts regarding it which appear sufficiently 

 interesting to be laid before the Pharmaceutical Society. 



The volatile oil sold by Chemists as Oleum origani is often 

 popularly, and almost always commercially, termed Oil of 

 Thyme. Writers on Materia Medica generally mention the lat- 

 ter name as an incorrect appellation of the true oleum origani 

 vulyaris, a statement the converse of which I believe to be far 

 more usually the case. 



Thymv* During a visit to the South of France in the autumn of last 

 vulgaris. year, i procured from the manufacturer a sample of an essential 

 oil of thyme, as well as a specimen of the plant from which it 

 is distilled. ^ This oil, which was submitted ,to Dr. Pereira, 

 proved to be identical with the oleum origani of English 

 druggists ; and the plant, -which was kindly examined by Dr. 

 Lindley and G. Bentham, has been ascertained to be Thymus 

 vulgaris. The latter gentleman, in a note to me, states that 

 the plant in question is " the true Thymus vulyaris, so abundant 

 on the arid wastes of Lower Languedoc as to be much used 

 with rosemary and lavender for fuel." 



Thymus vulgaris, the common thyme of the gardens, is 

 collected from the rocky hills in the department of Gard in 



