STANDARDIZATION OF DISINFECTANTS 263 



GERM DESTROYING POWER AND TOXICITY OF DISINFECTANTS. Continued 



THE NARCOTIC AND ANTISEPTIC PROPERTIES OF THE ESSENTIAL 



OILS 



It is generally believed that the addition of spices to foods 

 serves to preserve them, that is, prevent decomposition changes. 

 In a general way this is in accord with facts. The antiseptic 

 properties of essential oils are quite marked and the antiseptic 

 properties of spices are largely due to the essential oils which they 

 contain. Important investigations in regard to the narcotic and 

 antiseptic properties of the more important essential oils have 

 been made by Martindale, Coupin and Geinitz. The following 

 is a summary of results by Geinitz as given in the Semi-annual 

 Report of Schimmel and Co., for Oct., 1912. 



The principal outcome of Geinitz' investigations is the establishment of the fact 

 that the narcotic and disinfecting properties of the essential oils do not correspond 

 with those of the active constituents of those oils; the sequence of the series differs 

 widely. For example, Russian anise oil and its active constituent, anethol, have 

 no antiseptic action whatsoever, but both have a pronounced narcotic action upon 

 cold-blooded animals. It would appear that the group which exerts an antiseptic 

 action and that which acts narcotically are not found in the same molecule of the 

 odoriferous bodies; nay, in many of these substances one of the groups is wanting 

 altogether. It is also necessary to abandon the theory that narcosis is determined 

 simply by the great solubility of lipoid in the cells of the nervous system, and that 

 the antiseptic action of essential oils depends upon solubility of the bacteria in the 

 lipoids. The explanation of the facts which have been observed is probably that 

 the organism of the bacteria with its peculiar metabolic process occupies in Nature a 



