496 



OIL-BEARING PLANTS 



OILr-BEARiNG PLANTS 



Importation of Volatile Oils into the United States 

 During the Year Ended June 30, 1905. 



Importation of Seeds from Which Volatile Oils are 



Distilled, During the Fiscal Year Ended 



June 30, 1905. 



Uses of volatile oils. 



Volatile oils meet with a wide use in the making 

 of perfumery, for which their pleasing odor and 

 high degree of volatility render them especially 

 valuable. They are used not only mixed in propor- 

 tions designed to produce a given fragrance in the 

 form of solutions seen in the usual commercial 

 perfumeries, but they find their way into many 

 other preparations in which pleasing odor is desired. 

 Soaps alone make a striking illustration. As flavor- 

 ing agents they play an important part in domestic 

 economy. The "essences" of the kitchen, bakery 

 and confectionary factory are in large part prepa- 

 rations of such volatile oils as give the desired 

 flavors to cakes, ice creams and candies. They are 

 also used in various beverages, liquors and cordials. 

 The French beverage, absinthe, is distinguished 

 by the presence in it of oil of wormwood. These 

 oils and their products are also used in the manu- 

 facture of remedies. Menthol, a crystalline sub- 

 stance obtained from peppermint oil by subjecting 



it to a low temperature, occurs in many prepara- 

 tions because of its antiseptic properties, and in 

 the form of cones or pencils for use externally in 

 headaches, neuralgia and the like. Eucalyptol, ob- 

 tained from eucalyptus oil, and thymol, obtained 

 chiefly from the oil of thyme, are likewise highly 

 valued antiseptics and enter into many washes, 

 sprays and other medicinal preparations. Some oils 

 of the class here concerned are employed almost 

 solely for medicinal purposes, such as oil of Ameri- 

 can wormseed. Others have a limited use in various 

 ways in the arts and sciences, e. g., oilof red cedar 

 wood and of white cedar in microscopic work. 



Anise. [See Medicinal, Condimental and Aromatic 

 Plants, page 458.] 



Bitter Almonds (Prunus Amygdalus, var. amara, 

 DC). BosaeecB. 

 The so-called oil of bitter almonds is obtained 

 from the kernel of bitter almonds, apricots and 

 peaches. The kernels are coarsely ground, submit- 

 ted to great hydraulic pressure to remove the fatty 

 oils present, and the remaining cake after finer 

 grinding is macerated in several times its volume 

 of water and left for twelve hours. The volatile 

 oil does not exist ready formed in the seed, but is 



Fig. 723. Long-leaf pine iPinus palustns). 



developed by the chemical action of bodies present 

 in the kernel. Amygdalin, a glucoside present, 

 when acted on by emulsin, a splitting ferment also 

 present in the kernel, splits up, in the presence of 

 water, into grape-sugar, prussic acid and benzalde- 



