84 Report of Schimmel 8j Co. 1922. 



fractions of the oil, the terpenes, are the efficacious constituents. They found that 

 the vermifugal action was due exclusively to the ascaridole and not to the hydrocarbons. 

 The products forming on decomposition of ascaridole in the heat were completely 

 inefficacious. 



E. K. Nelson 1 ) publishes a method which makes it possible to determine quickly 

 the ascaridole content of wormwood, oil. It is based upon the solubility of ascaridole 

 to the extent of 98 per cent, in a mixture of 60 parts of glacial acetic acid and 40 parts 

 of water. The wormseed oil terpenes are insoluble in such a mixture. The test is 

 carried out as follows:— 10 cc. of chenopodium oil are vigorously shaken in a cassia 

 flask with 60 per cent, acetic acid. Then acetic acid of the same strength is added 

 up to the mark, when the ascaridole content can be calculated from the quantity of 

 undissolved oil. .The author found like that in five samples from 48 to 73 per cent, 

 of ascaridole. 



Ch. Sparhawk 2 ) gives an illustrated description of three varieties of American 

 wormseed (Chenopodium ambrosioides, L., var. anthelminticum, Gray). The first, wild 

 variety, a tangled mass of leaves, seeds, §c, does not produce much oil, although it 

 feeds ravenously on the fertilizing material. A second, highly developed variety is 

 distinguished by many seeds, with practically no leaves. This is the grade that 

 produces the best oil, although the yield is not the largest. The third type, with 

 stocky stem, plentiful leaves, and seeds on short stalks, gives the biggest returns, 

 but the quality of the oil is not so good. Sparhawk adds that the seeds alone do 

 not give any oil 3 ) but that the percentage of seeds seems to indicate the quality. 



The superiority of chenopodium oil over thymol in the treatment of hook-worm 

 disease is described in a report of the Uncinariasis Commission to the Orient 4 ). 

 Whereas there was failure to cure the patient in 23.6 cases out of a hundred treated 

 with thymol, there were only 7.6 failures with chenopodium. Apart from the many 

 advantages, which we have pointed out before 5 ) and the enumeration of which is 

 therefore unnecessary, chenopodium oil has a disadvantage, according to the report 

 in question, in that it often causes by-effects, such as dizziness, unsteadiness of gait, 

 inability to rise, headache, 6jc. Certain purges intensified the toxic effects, thus 

 giddiness and deafness were more marked among patients having castor oil than 

 among those having magnesium sulphate. 



W.Schuffner and H.Vervoort 6 ) communicate that in British East India and the U.S.A. 

 too large doses (3 cc.) of American wormseed oil were frequently given. Toxic effects 

 (vomiting, dizziness, deafness, $c.) were often the result, so that the oil nearly lost 

 its good reputation in these countries. In the same degree as the doses were gradu- 

 ally reduced (down to 1 .2 grams), the bad by-effects ceased. According to the authors 

 the age of the oil seems to have an influence on both efficacity and poisonous nature. 

 Cajus and Mhaskar 7 ) found that the ascaridole content went down from 70 to 56 per cent, 

 in the course of one year. Wrench 8 ) reports that a chenopodium oil which, after 

 having been stored for one year still contained 66 per cent, of ascaridole, had lost its 

 original noxiousness, but nothing of its efficacity. If Wrench's observations are correct, 



x ) Journ. Americ. Pharm. Assoc. 10 (1921), 836. — 2 ) Perfum. Record 12 (1921), 388. — 3 ) Cf. Wirth's 

 treatise (Bericht 1920, 60). Wirth proved that the oil is contained only in the hairs on the seeds and the leaves. 

 — *) Perform. Record 12 (1921), 57. — 8 ) Cf. Report 1919, 113. — 8 ) Mededeelingen van den burgerlijken geneeskundigen 

 IHenst in Xeih-rhtndsch-Indie 1921, I, 29. — 7 ) Indian Journ. of med.. Research 1920. — 8 ) Ibid. 1918. 



