Scientific and other notes on essential oils. 



39 



Besides the oils, when distilled from fresh or dry plants, differ accordingly to a 

 considerable extent 1 ). When fresh plants are used for distillation, the process takes 

 some time and resinous compounds easily get into the oil, which otherwise when dry 

 material is employed become oxidized by the oxygen of the air into non-volatile resins. 

 Accordingly, oils produced from dry herb do not become resinous so easily and are 

 more stable' 2 ), whereas the oils distilled from fresh plants have first to undergo a 

 process of resinification, whereby their solubility easily suffers and their specific 

 gravity increases. 



Peppermint Oil, Japanese. In an article by A. Dyes 3 ) on Greater Japan's 

 economical development, taking into consideration the chemical and allied industries, 

 we find some figures concerning the peppermint production. Judging by them, the 

 export of menthol crystals would be increasing considerably. The figures for 1913 and 

 1914 ran as follows: — 





Menthol crystal 



$ 



1913 



1914 







British India .... 





151 



767 



106 

 '276 







Great Britain .... 









France . 





357 



119 







Germany . . . . . 

 United States. 





1015 

 470 



582 

 625 







oilier countries . . . 





101 



105 





The 



production amounted to: — 



total: 



2872 



1816 4 ) 







crude peppermint (?) B ) 

 lbs. dollars 



peppermint oil 

 lbs. dollars 



menthol 

 lbs. - dollars 



1908 . 



. . . 141090 114570 



89364 



93182 



79268 



107 978 



1909 . 



. . .228711 248208 



143317 



156255 



149 103 



263096 



1910 . 



. . . 248745 382430 



158243 



177261 



150413 



276875 



1911 . 



. . . 352960 728807 



165356 



222887 



166161 



295933 



1912 . 



. . . 619512 1553303 



208 128 



296537 



202457 



999278 



In Japan, the yield of dried peppermint leaves amounts to 243 to 375 lbs. per acre 

 and varies in the different districts. On an average, the annual production from 1908 

 to 1912 was 321 lbs. per acre. In above American statistics, the "crude peppermint" (?) 5 ) 

 does not include peppermint oil and menthol. One reckons about 12 cents of costs 

 for 100 lbs. of plants and 495 lbs. of plants per acre; hence, the costs per acre would 

 be 60 cents or so. The area planted with peppermint came up to 11 373 hectares, in 

 1913, and the leaves obtained weighed 42000 tons or 11 million kwans. The increase 

 compared with former years is most surprising. The area planted was: — 



in hectares (cho) in kins 



1910 ... 3010 3031737 1912 



1911 . . . 4177 4052723 1913 



in hectares (cho) in kins 



. 6355 6344030 



. 11373 11076006 



In 1914, the Hokkaido planters transferred their rights of selling to Samuel, 

 Samuel $ Co., which called forth the opposition of the Japanese forestallers. 



x ) Gildemeister und Hoffmann, Die atherischen die, 2 nd ed., vol. Ill, p. 550, 551. — 2 ) v. Rechenberg, 

 loc.cit., p. 281. — 3 ) Chem. Ztg. 41 (1917), 518. — 4 ) To be understood in thousands of yen, as per a com- 

 munication by letter from the author. — 6 ) It is not at all clear to us what the author means by "crude 

 peppermint". / 



