2 
Petroleum  Benzin  in  Pharmacy, 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharfn. 
I       Jan.,  1877. 
their  value,  if  not  superior,  certainly  not  inferior  to  the  distilled  oils  of 
these  articles. 
The  oils  obtained  by  exhaustion  with  benzin  and  it  subsequent  evap- 
oration are  mixed  with  wax  and  fixed  oils  to  some  extent,  which  can 
easily  be  separated  therefrom  by  dissolving  in  alcohol,  in  which  the 
latter  are  insoluble,  filtration  of  this  solution,  and  either  expulsion  of 
the  alcohol  by  evaporation  at  the  moderate  heat  of  a  water-bath  orT 
much  safer  and  better,  by  mixing  the  filtered  alcoholic  solution  with 
several  times  its  bulk  of  water,  when  the  essential  oil  will  arise  to  the 
surface  or  subside  beneath  it,  as  its  specific  gravity  may  be. 
The  oils  by  this  cold  process  have  a  beautiful  aroma,  superior  to 
many  of  the  distilled  ones,  and  the  easy  manner  of  obtaining  them 
may,  without  doubt,  prove  a  valuable  method  for  the  pharmacist  who 
cannot  always  procure  in  the  market  the  oils  he  wants,  and  has  no 
facilities  for  distilling  them,  besides  giving  him  fair  means  to  arrive  at 
a  quantitative  estimate  of  the  essential  oil  contained  in  an  article  under 
analysis. 
The  essential  oil  of  parsley  seed  cannot  thus  be  separately  prepared 
by  the  aid  of  benzin,  as  it  contains  another  peculiar  oily  substance, 
well  known  by  the  name  of  "  apiol,"  which  is  soluble  both  in  it  and- 
also  alcohol. 
A  great  deal  of  the  apiol  in  the  market,  both  in  bulk  and  in  cap- 
sules, is  nothing  more  than  an  oleoresin  of  parsley  seed,  which  can 
lay  no  claim  whatever  to  its  name,  being  of  green  color,  insoluble,  to 
a  large  extent,  in  alcohol,  and  congealing  at  ordinary  winter  tempera- 
ture, all  of  which  properties  "  true  apiol "  does  not  possess.  Apiol 
has  come  into  extensive  use  of  late  years,  secured  high  praise  as  an 
emmenagogue,  and  is  also  claimed  by  its  discoverers  to  be  an  antiperi- 
odic  but  little,  if  any,  inferior  to  quinia  ;  but  its  high  price,  conse- 
quent to  the  expensive  process  as  proposed  by  Messrs.  Joret  &  Ho- 
molle,  perhaps  more  than  anything  else,  prevents  its  general  introduc- 
tion. 
Powdered  parsley  seed,  exhausted  with  benzin,  and  the  liquid  spon- 
taneously evaporated,  yields  a  mixture  containing  principally  fixed  oil, 
wax  and  apiol ;  the  latter,  alone,  being  soluble  in  alcohol,  can  readily 
be  recovered  therefrom  hy  repeated  washings  in  stronger  alcohol.  The 
washings  evaporated  over  the  water-bath  with  a  gentle  heat,  leave  as 
residue  "  True  Apiol,"  corresponding  in  every  respect  with  the  article 
