50 Report of Schimmel $ Co. 1921. 



before 1912 nobody would have enumerated it among the indispensable medicines 1 ). 

 Only after two Dutch medical men, Schiiffner and Vervoort, had ascertained in Deli 

 (Sumatra) that chenopodium oil was a very effective remedy again the hookworm 

 disease 2 ), the oil became, according to Van der Wielen, the important vermifuge of the 

 present days. At the present time Chenopodium ambrosioides is being cultivated in Deli and 

 also in other places of the Dutch East Indies. The plants obtained from Deli seeds have 

 also been cultivated with success in the botanical gardens at the University of Amsterdam. 



From the seeds of Chenopodium ambrosioides, L., erroneously known also as 

 American Semen Contra 3 ), which come from the Dutch East Indies, Roure-Bertrand 

 Fils 4 ) obtained by direct steam distillation, 0.7 per cent, of a pale-yellow oil of the 

 following constants: — diso 0.9763; « D +°°; acid v. 0.93; ester v. 6.54; sap. v. 7.47; 

 soluble in two or more volumes of 70 per cent, alcohol. By extracting the distillate with 

 petrolether a further 0.35 per cent, of an oil, more of amber colour and less soluble in 

 alcohol of 70 per cent, was obtained; this oil had the constants:— di 5 o 0.9843; « D ±0°; 

 acid v. 0.93; ester v. 13.05; sap. v. 13.98; the solution in 70 per cent, alcohol was turbid. 



In distinction from the American wormseed oil which is laevorotatory, this Indian 

 chenopodium oil is inactive. According to Tijssen two Indian oils were even found 

 to be dextrorotary (a-f- 0.48° and +0-50°). Nevertheless these oils are reputed good 

 vermifuges and have, according to Schiiffner and Tijssen 5 ) been applied with success 

 against the hookworm disease. 



The trade with American wormseed oil still leaves a great deal to be desired. 

 Although the genuine oil is no longer an article as difficult to procure as it was in the past 

 years, the samples which we analysed in our laboratories were still predominantly artificial 

 products, though partly superior to the former articles in sofar as they had been "perfumed" 

 with some genuine oil. We hope to be able to give a more favourable report next year. 



There is no objection to the preparation of substitution-products of oils which 

 are manufactured for perfumery, since they meet a demand which has become urgent 

 and since they partly replace the natural oils very well. The case of oils which, like 

 the American wormseed oils, are exclusively for medicinal use is entirely different. 

 As long as we are not able to prepare, by chemical or other means, the ascaridole, the 

 essential or effective constituent — and there is so far no chance of that — talk of the 

 preparation of an artificial wormseed oil is simply a nonsense. For in this case we do 

 not wish to have a product, which more or less resembles the article by odour or 

 taste, but we must have a product which is equivalent therapeutically. This, however, 

 could only be the case if the artificial oil contained ascaridole as chief constituents, 

 which appears excluded for the present. It is all the more regrettable when a Hamburg 

 firm, not an important one, it is true, advertises artificial Ol. chenopodii] some bona fide 

 buyers, believing in the medicinal efficacy of the oil, will be caught by this offer. We 

 presume that the respective firm was not acquainted with the actual conditions and 

 had no idea of the uselessness of such an artificial product. We make these statements 

 merely for the purpose of warning against this artificial oil. 



The following communication from E. Merck 6 ) will show that we are not alone in 

 our bad experience with American wormseed oil. According to this communication 

 an oil advertised by a Hamburg firm as Oleum Chenopodii artificiale had the following 





*) The article does not mention that H. Bruning had recommended American wormseed oil in Germany 

 already in 1906 as a vermifuge, and that we had thoroughly tested it in 1908. — 2 ) Cf. also Report Oct. 1913, 

 108; Report 1919, 61. — 3 ) Semen contra = Semen Cince. — ±) Bull. Roure-Bertrand Fils, October 1920, 

 No. 2, 29. — 6 ) See also Report 1919, 113. — 6 ) Pharm. Ztcj. 66 (1921), 214. 



