N. 0. ROSAOjE. 
523 
Uses : — The root is astringent, tonic, apd antiseptic, but it is 
undeservingly neglected in modern practice ( British Flora 
Meidca), 
This plant does not seem to be used for medicinal purposes 
in India. 
Source and composition of the essential oil of Herb Bennett 
Root. A new glucoside and Enzyme. 
The dried root of Herb Bennett (Oeum urbanum) has a feeble odour re- 
sembling that of cloves. If the plant be carefully plucked so as to leave the 
root intact, there is no manifestation of the characteristic odour, but this is 
at once detectable when the root is crushed between the fingers. The ex- 
planation of this phenomenon was established by the following experi- 
ments. 
By extraction of the fresh root with boiling alcohol of 95°, distillation of 
the extract under reduced pressure, extraction of all the residue with alcohol, 
and precipitation of the solution by excess of ether, a" substance is obtained 
which is odourless, but however contains the substance which gives rise to 
odoriferous principle. This proves to be eugenol. 
Another portion of the root was macerated with sand and extracted with 
cold alcohol of 90°. The residual powder, which contains an enzyme, was 
dried at 80°. On adding to an aqueous solution of the first substance, a little 
of the ferment powder, a distinct odour of cloves is at once evident. If the 
ferment powder is previously heated in boiling water, the effect is not ob- 
servable. It is concluded from these observations that the odoriferous prin- 
ciple does not exist free in the Herb Bennett root, but is produced from some 
other substance present by the action of an enzyme. The substance is a 
glucoside ; on addition of the enzyme to its aqueous solution, the reducing 
power and the rotary power both gradually increase. 
The active enzyme is characteristic, the resolution of the glucoside is not 
effected by emulsin, invertase, onor by the enzyme of Aspergillus niger. It 
cannot be extracted by treatment of the roots with water. 
The glucoside can be isolated in globular crystals by addition of ether to 
the alcoholic solution. The term gein is proposed for the glucoside, and 
gease for the enzyme.— J. Oh. S. 1905 A II 845. 
469 . G. datum , Wall, h.f.b.i., ii. 343 . 
Vern. : — Gunglu junglic (Pers.); gogjemool (Cashmere). 
Habitat :■ — Subalpine to Alpine Himalaya; from Kashmir to 
Sikkim. 
Rootstock stout, woody. Leaves pinnatisect, hairy, 4-12in., 
linear-oblong ; leaflets £-lin,, close and imbricating or scattered, 
uniform or the alternate smaller, terminal orbicular, all lobed 
and coarsely crenate, upper all adnate by a broad base. 
