— 95 — 



The oils, therefore, have also a very low specific gravity 1 ), and 

 contain moreover no ester, or only very little, and quite unimportant 

 quantities of alcoholic constituents. Here, also, the distillation material 

 which originated from the Departement Bouches-du-Rhone, was- in a 

 comparatively early stage of development. 



Professor P e r r o t of Paris, who is an excellent authority on the 

 Juniperus species, was kind enough to establish the identity of the 

 material worked up with Juniperus phoenicea L. 



Spearmint Oil. The last harvest was very abundant and as the 

 demand was only moderate, the prices fell back in proportion. It 

 appears that fairly important stocks of this article have accumulated, 

 and that these depress the market. 



Spoonwort Oil. As the German Pharmacopoeia prescribes a 

 spoon wort spirit containing 0,06 to 0,07 °/ of butyl mustard oil, it 

 is only possible to use a material which yields 0,3 to 0,35 °/ mustard 

 oil. On a previous occasion we mentioned already that Urban 2 ) 

 obtained a distillate which agreed with the requirements of the Pharma- 

 copoeia, by using as crude material not the herb, but the seed of the 

 plant. Of a mixture consisting of 200 g. pulverised seed freed from 

 fatty oil, 50 g. white mustard flour, 3000 g. water, and 1125 g. 

 90 per cent, alcohol, he distilled off 1,5 kilo. The identity of the 

 essential oil obtained from the seed with that obtained from the herb, 

 was proved by conversion of the oil in secondary butyl thio- carb- 

 amate (m. p. 1 3 7°). 



E. Liicker 3 ) has now found after repeated trials, that also from 

 quite fresh herb, according to the directions of the German Pharma- 

 copoeia III, a spoonwort spirit is obtained which answers the require- 

 ments of the Pharmacopoeia. Liicker himself had cultivated the 

 plants, and although they are said to thrive usually only on the sea- 

 side and near salt springs, he obtained in his own garden excellent 

 yields; the radical leaves had a length of 20 to 25 cm. 



The fresh herb (8 parts) was pounded to a uniform paste, macer- 

 ated for 12 hours with alcohol (3 parts) and water (3 parts) and 

 then submitted to distillation. The distillate produced according to the 

 directions had a specific gravity of 0,908. Now, whilst a commercial 

 preparation, or one prepared according to the German Pharma- 

 copoeia IV, only contained 0,026 and 0,027 °/ butyl mustard oil 

 respectively, instead of 0,0575 °/ , Liicker obtained in 100 g. distillate 

 from 100 g. fresh herb, a content of mustard oil of 0,0512 g. From 

 the distillate obtained from the fresh herb, Liicker was able to produce 



x ) Comp. for the rest also oil described by us in our last Report, p. 72. 

 2 ) Arch, der Pharm. 212 (1904), 51; Report April 1904, 83. 

 *) Apotheker Ztg. 21 (1906), 1006. 



