AmjJa°nuri^arm-}  Notes  on  Essential  Oils.  43 
Professor  Dunstan  agrees  with  me  as  to  the  importance  of  making 
these  additions  to  the  Addendum,  and  in  this  way  avoiding  the 
great  delay  which  would  be  involved  in  waiting  for  a  new  edition  or 
reprint  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  itself. 
NOTES  ON  ESSENTIAL  OILS  AND  ALLIED 
PRODUCTS. 
By  Geo.  M.  Beringer,  Ph.G. 
Abstract  from  the  Semi-Annual  Report  of  Schimmel  &  Co. 
Alant  Oil  (from  Inula  Helenium,  L. ) — The  liquid  constituent  of  alant  root  can 
only  be  obtained  in  very  limited  quantities.  The  drug  is  now  worked  exclu- 
sively for  its  helenin,  a  crystallizable  substance  melting  at  66°  C,  which  has 
recently  been  successfully  employed  in  Spain  against  cholera.  According  to 
Marpmann,  helenin  prevents  the  development  of  tuberculosis.  — See  Amer. 
Jour.  Pharmacy,  1876,  p.  353,  and  1884,  p.  530  and  646. 
Almond  Oil,  Essential. — Attention  is  again  directed  to  the  sophistication  of 
bitter  almond  oil  with  artificial  benzaldehyde  and  the  value  of  the  test  for  the 
detection  of  the  latter  published  in  their  April  report.  The  test  offered  is  as 
follows:  "Into  a  small  porcelain  vessel  sitting  in  a  larger  one,  is  placed  a 
piece  of  filter  paper  folded  together  like  a  lighter  and  soaked  with  the  oil  to 
be  tested.  This  paper  being  set  on  fire,  it  is  quickly  covered  with  a  two-liter 
beaker  ready  at  hand,  which  is  moistened  inside  with  distilled  water.  The 
gases  arising  from  the  combustion  settle  on  the  damp  sides  of  the  beaker  and 
with  a  little  distilled  water  are  washed  into  a  filter.  The  addition  to  the 
filtrate  of  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver  should  not  cause  any  turbidness,  much 
less  a  precipitate  of  chloride  of  silver.  The  value  of  the  test  depends  upon 
the  fact  that  the  artificial  oil,  prepared  from  benzylchloride,  shows  traces  of 
chlorine  products,  which  cannotT  be  removed.  Genuine  oil  distilled  from 
almonds  or  peach  kernels,  never  gives  a  chlorine  reaction. 
Recently  Heppe  has  proposed  another  test  for  the  detection  of  artificial 
benzaldehyde  in  bitter  almond  oil.  He  allows  a  few  drops  of  the  oil  to  fall 
into  a  melted  mixture  of  KHO  and  KN03  mixed  intimately  by  stirring  with  a 
platinum  wire.  The  flux  is  dissolved  in  water  acidulated  with  nitric  acid  and 
tested  for  chlorine  with  silver  nitrate.  These  tests  are  based  upon  the  same 
scientiic  principles. 
Anise  Oils. — According  to  reports  from  Russia  the  favorable  weather  has 
resulted  in  more  than  an  average  yield  of  anise  in  the  cultivated  areas.  The 
production  of  anise  has  almost  continually  increased,  not- only  in  Russia,  but 
also  in  Italy,  Syria  and  Turkey,  and  India  has  recently  entered  the  field.  The 
resulting  decline  in  price  of  the  oil  will  enable  it  to  largely  displace  star-anise 
oil.  A  monopoly  of  the  latter  oil  is  reported  to  have  been  secured  by  a  French 
firm  in  Hanoi,  from  January  1,  1891. 
Boldo-leaf  Oil. — According  to  the  Real-J3ncyclopadie  der  gesammten  Phar- 
macie,  boldo-leaf  oil  is  employed  in  affections  of  the  liver  and  in  gall-stones,  as 
also  recently  against  gonorrhoea,  dyspepsia  and  rheumatism. 
