1124 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Chemistry of the Drug and Oleoresin. 
Tabulation of Constituents. 
The chemistry of black pepper has been the subject of a 
number of investigations 1 conducted during the past century. 
As a result of these investigations, the presence of the follow¬ 
ing substances of pharmaceutical interest has been established: 
volatile oil, piperine, resin, starch, coloring matter and inor¬ 
ganic constituents. In addition to the foregoing, the presence 
of fatty oil, piperidine and methyl pyrroline has been reported. 
The following are stated by Kayser and others 2 3 to be present 
in the oleoresin when prepared with ether : 
Volatile Oil 
Fatty Oil 
Piperine 
Resin 
Coloring Matter 
Ash 
Occurrence of Description of Individual Constituents. 
Volatile Oil: 5 According to the report of Schimmel and 
Company, 4 the volatile oil of pepper is a colorless or yellowish- 
green liquid, having a phellandrene-like odor. At 15°C, the 
specific gravity is given as 0.88 to 0.905 and the angle of ro¬ 
tation in a 100 millimeter tube as -5° 2' to -j- 2° 27'. It is 
stated to be soluble in 15 parts of alcohol (90 per cent). 
Early attempts to determine the composition of the oil were 
made by Dumas, 5 and Soubeiran and Capitaine. 6 In 1887, 
Eberhardt 7 isolated a 1-terpene which he failed, however, to 
1 Among those who have reported more or less complete analyses of pepper 
the following may be mentioned: Pelletier, Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. (1821), 
16, p. 337; Luca, Tschenb. f. Scheidekiinstl. u. Apoth, (1822), 43, p. 81; H. 
Rottger, Arch. f. Hygiene (1886), 4, p. 183; Richardson, U. S. Dept, of 
Agric. Bull. No. 13, (1887), p. 206; Johnstone, Chem. News (1888), 58, p. 
235; Kayser, Chem. Centralb. (1888), 59, p.261 ; Weigle, Apoth. Ztg. (1893), 
8, p. 468; Hebebrand, Zeitschr. Unters. Nahr. u. Genussm. (1896), p. 345 ; 
Winton, Ogden and Mitchell, Ann. Rep. Conn. Exp. Sta. (1898), p. 198; 
Balland, Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim. (1903). 157, p. 296. 
2 Kayser, Weigle, Balland, l. c. 
3 The description of the oil as here given is for that obtained from the 
fruit by distillation with steam. 
1 Schimmel & Co., Semi-Ann. Rep.. Oct. 1893, p. 34. 
6 Ann. d. Chem. (1835), 15. p. 159 ; Journ. f. prakt. Chem. (1835), 4, p. 434. 
6 Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim, (1840), 26, p. 83\ 
T Arch. der Pharm. (1887), 225, p. 515. 
