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- COMMERCIAL AND SCIENTIFIC NOTES ON ESSENTIAL OILS. 59 
My een ‘distillation under reduced pressure and without observing necessary pre- 
cautions, it has a low specific gravity, a poor ascaridole content and leaves behind a 
considerable distillation residue, which probably consists of decomposition products 
_ of ascaridole. In the samples collected by the author the greatest distillation residue 
amounted to only 2.3 per cent., on the contrary 8 oils distilled purposely under reduced 
steam-pressure left residues of 7 to 25 per cent. These residues appear partly to 
consist of glycolic substances which are soluble in water. 
A simple process for testing the purity of ascaridole is according to Nelson as 
follows:—A few drops of this substance are placed upon a metal plate warmed to 
250°. The purity of the ascaridole is judged according to the rapidity with which these 
drops take fire. 
The seven samples collected in Carroll satisfied the demands of the American 
Pharmacopeeia : — d=; 0.9538 to 0.9792, [a], —3.6 to — 6.5°, soluble in 8 vols. 70 per cent. 
alcohol, ascaridole content 60 to 77 per cent., distillation residue 0.9 to 2.3 per cent. 
The oils also from-Java and those over a year old from Brazil were normal. On 
the contrary the product obtained from wild Chenopodiwm-plants contained indeed the 
same constituents, but less ascaridole than the oil from Maryland. 
Nelson further established that chenopodium oil in addition to p-cymene contains 
l-limonene (tetrabromide, m. p. 104 to 105°). A small amount of a nitrosite melting 
at 155° indicated the presence of «-terpinene alice oxidation attempts brought no 
Satisfactory proof of this terpene. 
A searching botanical investigation has been published by E. H. Wirth’) over the 
chenopodiacea Chenopodium ambrosioides var. anthelminticum which yields the American 
wormseed Oil. The plant probably originating from tropical America, occurs in several 
_ well-known varieties in the south and west of U.S.A. The evil-smelling annual or 
perennial plant has strong branches and grows 30 to 100 cm. high. The most important 
plant for oil winning is the achenium, whose diameter with the calyx amounts to 
1 to 2mm. In a fresh state the fruits, which appear singly or in panicles, have a 
shiny green appearance; on drying they gradually become straw-coloured. A very thin 
fruit-envelope, consisting of an inner and outer skin, surrounds the lentil-shaped pitch- 
black, shining seeds, whose diameter amounts to 0.8 to 1.2mm. There are numerous 
gland-hairs on the outer skin, the two largest thin-walled end cells of which contain 
the oil. With the aid of micro-chemical tests Wirth has shewn that the oil is present 
only in the hairs, and not in the seed itself, as was formerly assumed. Since the 
generally used reagents for micro-chemical identifications of essential oils such as 
alcannin, osmic acid, fuchsine and copper acetate solution were unusable, Wirth made 
use of a 50 per cent. solution of potassium hydroxide in 50 per cent. aldehyde-free . 
alcohol. Brought into contact with this solution, the chenopodium oil became deep 
yellow on warming, then gradually deep-red, and finally red-brown. This reaction can 
also be well observed under the microscope with thin sections. 
Whilst the stem of the plant has no gland hairs, yet they are found on both sides 
_ of the leaves, but smaller and less numerous than on the fruit. The ovaries are covered 
_ likewise with many similar oil-containing hairs. 
The flowering plant has not, up to the present, been distilled. Such an experiment 
would probably bring light upon the question as to whether the cymene in ordinary 
wormseed oil was originally present, or whether it only originated from the ascaridole 
after the fruit had developed. 
2) Journ, Americ. Pharm. Assoc. 9 (1920), 127. 
