Commercial and scientific notes on essential oils. 49 



acid and formaldehyde or merely by sulphuric acid, the author himself considers entirely 

 unreliable, thereby confirming the opinion which we expressed at that time concerning 

 the value of these reactions 1 ). 



Wormseed Oil, American. — The prices in the United States have continuously been 

 receding during the last months, much to the advantage of the many producers of vermifuges. 

 Although our New York friends supply us regularly with larger quantities, the supplies had 

 not always come up to the demand. We have now, however, been able to take mesures 

 which will prevent any further inability on our part to meet the demands. We should on 

 this occasion once more emphasise that the greatest possible caution should be exercised 

 in the purchase of this oil, because it is applied internally. Cheap wormseed oils are still 

 being advertised in the newspapers, which carry their name without right and the use of 

 which for medicinal purposes might cause the respective manufacturers very serious trouble. 



A. Langer 2 ) reports upon the action of phenolphthalein on American wormseed oil. 

 Langer heats, in a fractionating flask fitted with a descending cooler, a mixture of the 

 oil, phenolphthalein and some toluene up to 175°. The flame is then taken away; the 

 reaction proceeds spontaneously under rise of temperature. After driving off the rests of 

 toluene and terpene by a current of steam, there remains a solid, reddish-yellow cake which 

 is soluble in hot toluene and can thus be separated from the excess of phenolphthalein. 

 The body has the character of a dye-stuff and is said to give a sulphonic acid when digested 

 with sulphuric acid. With 10 g. of oil, 6.5 g. of ascaridole and 4g. of phenolphthalein enter 

 into reaction. Since several other essential oils and adulterated chenopodium oils do not 

 give this reaction with phenolphthalein, the author suggests that the method might be 

 useful for the recognition of oil-blending. Langer believes, in view of the quantitative pro- 

 portions he used, that 3 molecules of ascaridole react with one molecule phenolphthalein. 



We must question this statement and remark that we regard a molecule of such 

 a constitution as improbable, considering the chemical nature and behaviour of ascaridole. 

 Ascaridole 3 ) is known to be a peroxide which undergoes a far-reaching decomposition, 

 or a violent molecular transformation, already when heated to 150°. In order to 

 recognise the presence of ascaridole in wormseed oil it is not necessary to test its 

 behaviour with respect to phenolphthalein. Simple heating is sufficient. If the Langer 

 preparation really represents the reaction product of ascaridole and phenolphthalein, it 

 will have to be considered as a reaction product of the decomposed ascaridole after 

 undergoing molecular rearrangement. For these reasons we doubt that the body can 

 therapeutically have the same action as ascaridole itself. 



The 15 acres of Government Cinchona plantation in Bengal of Chenopodium ambrosioides 

 gave a yield of 27« maunds per acre (1 maund = 37.324 kg.); the yield of oil was very 

 small. The cultivation experiments made with the same plant in the Government Cin- 

 chona plantations of the Nilgiris also had, in spite of all care bestowed upon them, so 

 unsatisfactory a result that commercial advantages cannot be looked forward to 4 ). 



We take the following notes from an article by P. van der Wielen 5 ) "On the culture 

 of Chenopodium ambrosioides anthelminticum" . The seeds of Chenopodium ambrosioides anthel- 

 minticum have for a long time already been used in Brazil as vermifuges. In 1895 a 

 German pharmaceutical chemist living in Brazil prepared the essential oil from the 

 seeds of this plant. The oil had been mentioned in the American pharmacopoeia, but 



x ) Eeprrrt October 1915, 41. — 2 ) Pharm. Ztg. 66 (1920), 191. — 3 ) Report April 1908, 115; October 

 1912, 115. — *) Perfum. Record 12 (1921), 8. — B ) Chemist and Druggist 93 (1920), 1334. 



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