- 84 ■ — 



mintha nepetd) 1 ) recently mentioned by us, but also resembled the oil of 

 European pennyroyal. As we were interested in becoming acquainted 

 with the plant from which the oil had been distilled, we obtained a 

 few dried specimens and endeavoured to recognise them. Unfortunately 

 the plants placed at our disposal were incomplete (the blossoms were 

 missing), but in spite of this we believe that we are justified in identify- 

 ing the plant as Amaracus dictamnus (L.) Benth. {Origanum dictamnus L., 

 dittany), indigenous to Crete, and which for the rest is largely cultivated 

 as an ornamental plant. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans the 

 plant was renowned as a medicinal herb which was employed as an 

 excitant and diaphoretic. It should not be confounded with Dictamnus 

 albus L., an aromatic plant growing here which also yields an essen- 

 tial oil. — Our sample had a yellowish colour and a strong odour 

 of pulegone. The constants were as follows: d^o 0,9331; a D-{-3°; 

 soluble in 2,7 vol. 70 per cent, alcohol with faint opalescence, which 

 increases when more alcohol is added; soluble in 1,5 and more vol. 

 80 per cent, alcohol, when 14 vol. are added cloudiness occurs. The 

 oil contained about 85°/ pulegone with a rotatory power of -\- 20 ic/; 

 the pulegone was isolated by means of sodium sulphite solution. 



Oil of Pastinaca roots. See under Pastinaca oil, p. 51. 



New Pharmacopoeias. 





Of new pharmacopoeias, we have to mention the 4th edition of 

 the Dutch and the 3rd edition of the Belgian. To the former we 

 referred already in our last Report, but we found it then impossible 

 to obtain a copy in good time, and we were therefore compelled to 

 postpone the discussion until the present Report, In addition to the 

 pharmacopoeias mentioned above, the supplement to the 4 th edition 

 of the German Pharmacopoeia published by the „Deutscher Apotheker- 

 Verein" has also appeared, whose articles as far as they are of interest 

 to us shall be discussed here. 



Dutch Pharmacopoeia. 



(Pharmacopoeia Nederlandica ed. IV.) 



Whilst the 3rd edition of the .Dutch Pharmacopoeia left much 

 to be desired as to the description and testing of essential oils, 

 the new edition shows an undeniable advance over the former. The 

 particulars given are on the whole correct, and errors of any im- 

 portance (which, however, it would have been easy to avoid) there 



x ) Report April 1903, 50. Comp. also the present Report p. 14. 



