22 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA 
Jan. 1 , 1887 
this important commercial quality by the globulus species in 
an extraordinary degree has given it a special favour, 
and undue prominence abroad to the exclusion of many 
species which would doubtless better adapted for 
the different special conditions of ditferent countries. 
Indeed to peruse the English and continental xhiar- 
maceutical and medical journals and general scientific 
X)eriodicals, one would imagine that out of the whole 150 
species of eucal^Tplus, the single one globulus was the only one 
in existence and the only one deserving attention, and there is 
no doubt that the continual European iteration of the praises 
of EucahjiHus globulus alone, as if all the other species had 
been tried and found wanting, has re-acted on Australian 
opinion and created even in the Australian }pharmaceutical 
world a belief that x^reparations from E. glolmlus possess 
virtues not to be found in those from any other species, and in 
short, that medicinally it is to be counted the eucalypt of 
of eucalypts, and it is to be feared that under the respect- 
insxDiring specific name of globulus, preparations are made ac- 
ceptable to the x^ublic, whose origin could, for the most part, 
be traced to unjustly undervalued sx)ecies. 
The introduction of eucalyptus prex^arations into general 
pharmacy was due in the first instance to a Sx^anish physician 
who, shortly after the introduction of the tree into Sx^ain, 
employed an alcoholic extract of the leaves and also of the 
bark to replace quinine in the treatment of intermittent 
fevers. As his success seemed to be unequivocal and as the 
facilities for obtaining an abundant supply of fresh leaves 
increased very rapidly in all the malarial districts round the 
Mediterranean, eucalyx^tus extracts came into common use in 
these districts although not introduced into any of the national 
pharmacopjeas. But in Victoria all this had been anticix?ated, 
thanks to the enterprise and perseverance of Mr. Bosisto, who 
sent to the Victorian exhibition of 1861, a splendid exhibit of a 
great variety of eucalyptus oils and other preparations classified 
as not only useful in the arts but also as x^ossessing valuable 
pharmaceutical prox)erties. His first sx^ecimen was shown at 
the Victorian exhibition of 1854, and afterwards transmitted to 
the first Paris exhibition. Thus in the wholesale sex)aration 
of this active xndncixde from the leaves we have been several 
years ahead of European xhiarmaceutical practice, where even 
yet it is the custom with the majority of druggists to x^i’^x^are 
their own extracts often from leaves that have become very 
old and dry ; indeed it is surprising that the convenience of 
the Australian prex:)arations has not been more quickly ax:>X3re- 
ciated abroad. The monks of Tre Fontane x^i'^xjare an oil 
and an extract which command a good sale in Italy, and as 
these are produced by the unpaid labour of the monks them- 
selves they constitute a fair source of revenue to the monastry. 
An account of the x^rogress that eucalyx^tus x^roducts have 
made quite recently in the estimation of scientific pharmaco- 
logists will be given in connection with that of their physio- 
logical action and materia medica. 
Manufactuhe. 
The manufacture of Eucalyptus oil is quite a simple and 
straightforward x^rocess and differs in no imx^ortant resx3ect 
from the one general method in vogue for extracting any of 
the essential oils from plants, such as oil of x>arsley, oil of 
thyme, oil of juniper, oil of camomile and many others, as for 
obtaining oil of turpentine from the crude resinous excretion 
of the pine. It is probable that the idea of extracting the 
essential oil of eucalyptus was originally suggested by the 
process in use in the East Indian Islands tor obtaining cajeput 
oil from the leaves of Melaleuca nihior or leucadeudron, a tree 
Tery closely related to our Australian Tea or Ti tree. The 
cajeput oil has been for hundreds of years a favourite medicine 
in India and the East, and after its introduction into Eurox^e 
at the beginning of this century it promised to come consider- 
ably into vogue but latterly its use has died away almost 
comx)letely. However, in the early days of eucalyptus oil, the 
cajex>ut oil was still in some rex)ute and it was considered to 
he greatly in favour of the eucalyptus oils that they were all 
very similar in odour and action to the East Indian Ti-tree 
oil and the great advantage that eucalyptus oil was considered 
to offer was the ease with which it could be obtained in large 
quantities, thus our ordinary Ti-tree scrub gives a yield about 
50 times as great as that of Melaleuca leucadeudron, while 
some of the eucalypts rich in oil surpass the Ti-tree scrub 
considerably in abundance of yield. 
The leaves are introduced with water into an ordinary 
still with a short worm attached; when the water is 
heated the volatile essential oil passes over mixed with 
steam at a temperature much below its own boiling x>oint, 
this latter fact being the chief reason for the employment of 
water in the x^i*ocess ; the oil and steam condense readily in 
the w'orm, keptjcool by a stream of w’ater ; the sex>aration of 
this bulk of the oil is a mere matter of decantation, as it is 
only slightly soluble in water. 
An idea of the systematic series of operations necessary for 
conducting the manufacture of Eucalyptus oil on a commer- 
cial scale can be obtained from the following description of 
Mr. Bosisto’s Mallee Works, abridged from an article in the 
Melbourne Argus, December 28th, 1882, on “ The Mallee and 
Its Uses ” : — 
“ Mr. Bosisto having felt his way by a trial shixnnent of the 
mallee or Eucalyptus o/eo5aoilto the home markets, xmrehased 
the freehold of 600 acres in the Wimmera district, forming 
the homestead of a squatting run known as the Antwerp 
station, and about 15 miles from Dimboola towards Lake 
Hindmarsh. The works are thus near enough to Horsham to 
give them the advantage of the railway facilities. The works 
are near the Biver Wimmera, but well above the summer level, 
so that they command a plentiful supply of water, for the 
river is wide at this point, without clanger from floods. 
Twenty hands are emxrloyed to cut the scrub, separate the 
leaves from the branches, and cart them to the stills. The 
cutters employed are experienced bushmen and blacks ; they 
work in sets, one cuts the small mallee eucalyx^t down with a 
single stroke of a shai'x) axe, another seizes it as it falls and 
severs the leafy head, leaving a clear x^ole 10 or 12 feet 
long ; the leaves are still further freed from the branches and 
branchlets, which would be only wasteful and troublesome in 
the stills, by means of a large steel knife worked guillotine- 
fasliion. Two waggons and teams are kept going carting the 
leaves to the stills, four of which of a good size are kex^t 
going. Mr. Bosisto emxfloys cox^per stills as probably the most 
economical in the end, although iron stills would tlo ; but in 
the process of distillation an acid is given off x^owerful enough 
to corrode the iron. When more than one still is in operation 
it is more economical, and in any case more convenient, to 
heat the mixture of leaves and water by means of slightly 
superheated steam from a high-xoressure boiler ; the leaves, 
when exhausted, are thrown into heaps to dry, and are then 
burned for the potash they contain. With 20 men at work 
two acres of mallee can be cleared in a day. Mr. Bosisto esti- 
mates the maximum yield from the mallee at a gallon for 50 
square feet, which would represent about 1800 gallons as ob- 
tainable from two acres of land under the most favourable 
circumstances. It is thus seen what valuable help Mr. Bosisto 
has given towards a solution of the long outstanding problem 
of the utilisation of the mallee country, a x)roblem which has 
vexed the souls of Victorian and South Australian Lands 
Dex^artments for many years, and the importance of which 
may be gathered from the estimated areas of mallee in the 
two colonies, namely, 5^ millions of acres of dense mallee, 
and 74 millions of broken mallee country in Victoria, and 
probably something near 100 millions of acres in South Aus- 
tralia.” 
It is certain that Mr. Bosisto’s factory on the Wimmera 
represents only the beginning of an industry that will grow to 
large dimensions on the Murray, especially when such enter- 
Xn’ise and caxhtal are directed towards the Mallee as the Messrs. 
Chaffey Brothers intend to apply to it, if they can secure the 
requisite amount of country under the conditions recently 
imposed by the Victorian Parliament. The main object of 
these gentlemen is to secure large tracts of the mallee area 
along the banks of the Murray, clear them, and develop the 
system of irrigated orchards, which have proved so successful 
in the Western States of North America. Special facilities 
would be afforded for utilising the scrub material as it was 
cut, by the convenient water carriage of the Murray, which 
would permit the gathering of leaves from a wide field of 
clearing operations to a central distillery, and the distribution 
of the mallee timber, which is the principal firewood in Ade- 
laide. Mr. Bosisto has been utilising part of his clearing in 
the Wimmera to make experiments on the adaptability to our 
climate of a number of medicinal andx^erfume x^lants, so that 
in .more ways than one he is endeavouring to foster the phar- 
maceutical industries in this country. 
The description given so far applies only to the manufac- 
ture of the mallee oil, which has at x^resent merely an indi- 
rect interest to the xfliarmacist, and is produced almost solely 
to compete with turpentine in apxilications to the arts, being 
