FRUCTUS A.JOWAN. 303 



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

 the ATiimi which Anguillara^ met with in 1549 at Venice, where it had 

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

 It is also, we suppose, the AmTiii jierimmlluTni of Lobel (1571), in whose 

 time the drug was likewise imported from Egypt, as well as the AmTiil 

 alteruvi jxt^iutm, the seed of which Dodon?eus (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 into notice in 

 1773 by Percival,^ who received a small quantity of it from Malabar a.s 

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

 spoken of by Fleming, Ainslie, Roxburgh, O'Shaughnessy, Waring and 

 other writers who have treated of Indian materia medica. 



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

 fercB, 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 large fruits is about xo, of the smaller form scarcely 

 xV of an inch. The fruits are greyish brown, plump, very rough on the 

 surface, owing to numerous minute tubercles (fructus inuricidatus). 

 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 large, 

 often attainincr 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, 

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

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

 Deccan, under the name of Ajiuain-ka-jjhul, i.e. floicers of ajtuain, was 

 showed by Stenhouse (1855) and by Haines (1856) to be identical with 



rOH 

 Thyraol, C®ff-| CH^ , as contained in Thymus vulgaris. 

 ( C3H7 



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 

 more in length. The liquid portion, even a,fter long exposure to a cold 

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

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

 somewhat larger quantities, it appeared to require fuUy 51° C. for com- 

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

 recrystallizes when a crystal of thymol is projected into it. 



^Semplici, Vinegia, 1561. 130. ^Essays, Medical and Experimental , ii. 



^ PJiarmacologia, 1693. 211. (1773) 226. 



