Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
January,  1915.  J 
Hookworm  Disease. 
35 
HOOKWORM  DISEASE. 
The  Use  of  Oil  of  Chenopodium  in  Its  Treatment,1 
By  Murray  Galt  Motter,  Technical  Assistant,  Division  of  Pharmacology, 
Hygienic  Laboratory,  United  States  Public  Health  Service. 
Among  the  inconveniences  entailed  by  the  European  wars  is  the 
failure  of  the  supplies  of  thymol,  used  so  largely  in  the  southern 
hookworm  campaign.  As  a  substitute  for  this  drug,  now  almost 
unobtainable,  American  wormseed  oil  (Oleum  Chenopodii  U.  S.  P.) 
has  been  suggested. 
As  indicated  by  the  name,  wormseed  has  long  had  a  reputation 
as  an  anthelmintic.  The  plant  from  which  the  oil  is  distilled  grows 
"  in  waste  places  from  New  England  to  Florida  and  westward  to 
California."  It  has,  however,  been  cultivated  particularly  in  Mary- 
land, and  the  oil  has  been  known  as  Baltimore  oil,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  western  oil,  which  is  no  longer  much  of  a  commercial  fac- 
tor. While  the  oil  is  almost  wholly  a  Maryland  product,  it  is  said 
that  the  seed  is  harvested  in  considerable  quantities  in  Florida,  where 
the  plant  is  one  of  the  most  pestiferous  of  the  weeds. 
Renewed  interest  in  the  possibilities  of  American  wormseed  oil, 
especially  against  round  worms,  seems  to  date  from  the  publications 
of  Briming,  in  1906,  who,  with  Gockel,  Kobert,  Linke,  Schmitz, 
Thelen,  and  others,  has  investigated  the  pharmacology  of  the  oil. 
The  chemistry  of  oil  of  chenopodium  has  been  studied  in  Germany 
by  Wallach  and  others  and  in  this  country  by  Kremers  and  by 
Nelson,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 
Clinically,  its  value,  especially  for  the  treatment  of  round  worms, 
was  well  established.  In  19 12,  Schuffner  and  Vervoort  presented  to 
the  Fifteenth  International  Congress  on  Hygiene  and  Demography 
a  paper  in  which  they  sought  to  demonstrate  the  superior  advantages 
of  oil  of  chenopodium  in  the  treatment  of  hookworm  disease  as  com- 
pared with  other  vermifuges.  These  authors,  in  the  course  of  eight 
months,  had  given  oil  of  chenopodium  in  1457  cases.  Giving  euca- 
lyptus oil  a  coefficient  of  38,  naphthol  68,  and  thymol  83,  oil  of 
chenopodium  surpassed  them  all  with  a  coefficient  of  91. 
Toxicologically,  a  search  of  the  Index  Catalogue  and  the  Index 
1  Reprint  from  the  Public  Health  Reports,  vol.  29,  No.  40,  Oct.  2,  1914. 
