THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
SEPTEMBER,  i8gj. 
ON  THE  COMPOSITION  OF  AMERICAN  PENNYROYAL 
OIL.1 
By  Chas.  J.  Habhegger. 
In  a  paper  read  before  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Associa- 
tion in  1887,  Dr.  Edward  Kremers  showed  that  the  American 
pennyroyal  oil,  after  saponification  with  caustic  potash,  yielded  two 
fractions  of  like  empirical  composition,  C10H18O.  In  1 891, 2  he 
showed  that  these  two  fractions  although  of  widely  differing  boiling 
points  168-17 1  °C.  and  206-2090  C.  respectively,  were  both  ketones 
yielding  similar  oximes  one  of  which  was  probably  menthoxime. 
In  the  year  following,3  further  experiments  were  made  in  the 
same  direction  without,  however,  coming  to  as  satisfactory  a  conclu- 
sion as  might  have  been  desired.  The  work  was  to  have  been  con- 
tinued during  the  past  year,  but  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  a 
reliable  specimen  of  American  pennyroyal  oil  in  sufficient  quantity. 
As  Mr.  Witte4  states  in  his  thesis,  experiment  had  already  indi- 
cated that  the  American  pennyroyal  oil  contained  pulegone,  and 
that  the  two  substances,  C10H18O  are  reduction  products  of  the 
same.  Beckmann  and  Pleissner5  state,  it  is  true,  that  they  have  not 
succeeded  in  obtaining  crystalline  pulegoneoxime  from  American 
or  Algerian  pennyroyal  oil.    To  ascertain,  definitely,  whether  the 
1  Read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Wis.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  Fond  du  Lac,  August,  1893. 
2  Phar.  Rundschau,  Band  IX,  p.  130. 
3  Proc.  Wis.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  1892,  p.  55. 
4  Ibidem,  1892,  p.  55  and  59. 
5  Ann.  d.  Chem.,  Bd.  262,  p.  37. 
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