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J. G. Gerock 1 ), which under the name of "Goldmelisse" is largely 

 used in the district about Berne. Under this name is known Monarda 

 didyma L. which is also indigenous to Southern Canada and the 

 mountain-ranges of the State of Georgia. The plant has a powerful 

 aromatic odour (which, however, is not at all like that of balm), and 

 it owes its stimulating and diuretic action undoubtedly to the 

 essential oil contained in the leaves and blossoms. In America the 

 plant is also known under the popular name of beebalm or horse- 

 mint, and is used there for the same purposes as in Switzerland as 

 Oswego tea or Pennsylvania tea. The composition of the essential 

 oil Monarda didyma is still unknown. J. W. Brand el 2 ) states that 

 the plant yields 0,03 °/ essential oil, and, contrary to earlier state- 

 ments, does not contain either thymol or carvacrol in demonstrable 

 quantities. 



Oil of Monarda fistulosa. Experiments made by F. Rabak 3 ) 

 have proved that the thymoquinone 4 ) occurring in the essential oil of 

 Monarda fistulosa in addition to hydrothymoquinone, must be attributed 

 to the presence of an oxidising ferment. Rabak isolated it from the 

 plant by bruising the fresh leaves in a mortar and stirring them with 

 water into a pulpy mass. From the expressed filtered liquid the 

 ferment separated out when alcohol was added. This precipitate 

 apparently only reacts with hydrogen peroxide, whereas with tincture 

 of guaiac its aqueous solution already produces a deep-blue colour. 

 The author was able to demonstrate by special experiments that the 

 oxydase reacts on the hydrothymoquinone first of all with separation 

 of dark crystals which are gradually converted into the yellow aggreg- 

 ates of thymoquinone. This process may probably be explained in 

 this manner, that the particles of thymoquinone first formed produce 

 with as yet unchanged hydrothymoquinone, thy mo quinhy drone, which 

 then by the continued action of the oxydase yields thymoquinone. 

 In an exactly analogous manner the ferment converts hydroquinone 

 into quinhy drone; but a further oxidation into quinone does not seem 

 to take place. Nor can an oxidising action on carvacrol or thymol 

 be observed, nor on cymene which stands in close relation to these 

 two phenols. The author, in consideration of the fact that in a mint 

 an oxidising ferment was found, also allowed the Monarda oxydase to 

 act on menthol, but here also he could only observe a negative result. 



D. B. Swingle 5 ) has subsequently made further experiments with 

 this ferment, and on the strength of the results obtained by him has 



1 ) Journ. der Pharm. von ElsaB-Lothringen 31 (1904), 78. 



2 ) Pharmaceut. Review 21 (1903), 109. Comp. Report Oct. 1903, 51. 



3 ) Pharmaceut. Review 22 (1904), 190. 



4 ) Pharmaceut. Review 19 (1901), 200, 244, Report Oct. 1901, 73. 



5 ) Pharmaceut. Review 22 (1904), 193. 



