1108 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Chemistry of the Drug and Oleoresin. 
Enumeration of Constituents. 
The following are the known constituents of parsley fruit which 
may be considered of pharmaceutical interest; volatile oil, fatty 
oil, apiin, and inorganic substances. While analyses of the 
oleoresin have not been reported, the first two named constitu¬ 
ents of the fruit, together with a small amount of inorganic 
matter, very likely represent this preparation when made by 
extracting the drug with ether, as apiin is stated to be insoluble 
in this solvent. 
Occurrence and Description of Individual Constituents. 
Volatile Oil. 1 The volatile oil of parsley fruit is described as a 
colorless or yellowish, thick liquid having a specific gravity of 
1.03 to 1.10 at 15°C. The angle of rotation in a 100 milli¬ 
meter tube is given as -5° to -10°. It is soluble in alcohol, ether, 
chloroform and petroleum ether. On cooling or shaking with 
water, it precipitates apiol. 2 
The composition of the oil varies with the locality in which 
the fruit is grown. The principal constituent of the oil dis¬ 
tilled from the fruit grown in Germany is apiol. Myristicin 
is present only in very small quantities. 3 It is stated that the 
apiol content is often so great that the oil is a semi-solid at or¬ 
dinary temperatures. In the French oil, myristicin predom¬ 
inates, while apiol, together with allyltetramethoxybenzene, is 
present in small amount. 4 The constitution of these compounds 
is represented by the following formulas: 
1 The following list comprises the more important references to the earlier 
literature on the volatile oil: Bley, Trommsdorff’s neues Journ. (1827), 14, 
p. 134; Bolle, Arch, der Pharm. (1829), 29, p. 168; Blanchet and Sell, Ann. 
der Chem. (1833), 6, p. 301; Loewig and Weidmann, Ibid. (1839), 32, p. 
283; von Gerichten, Ber. der. deutsch. chem. Ges. (1876), 9, pp. 258 and 
1477. 
2 Schimmel & Co., Ber. (1906), p. 95. 
3 Thoms, Ber. der deutsch. chem. Ges. (1903), 36, p. 3451; Ibid (1908), 
41, p. 2753; Chevalier, Bull. sci. pharmacologique (1910), 17, p. 128; Chem. 
Abs. (1911), 5, p. 1490. 
4 Ibid. Also, Bignami and Testoni, Gaz. Chim. ital. (1900), 30, p. 240. 
