^*r)e2!'i,f8™'}  Chinese  Peppermint  Oil.  551 
CHINESE  PEPPERMIMT  OIL. 
By  Prof.  Fluckiger. 
According  to  a  notice  contained  in  the  American  Journal  of  Phar- 
macy, May,  1871,  p.  223,*  the  Chinese,  when  suffering  with  facial 
neuralgia,  use  oil  of  peppermint,  which  they  lightly  apply  with  a 
camel-hair  pencil.  This  application  has  now  found  its  way  to  the  op- 
posite shore  of  the  Pacific,  where  the  immigration  of  Chinese  people 
is  very  considerable.  The  American  journal,  indeed,  states  that  Chi- 
nese pharmaceutists  in  San  Francisco,  as  well  as  in  New  York,  sell 
the  said  remedy  for  neuralgia,  and  that  it  has  already  gained  some 
repute.  The  oil  for  this  purpose  is  put  up  in  small  phials  containing 
about  half  a  drachm. 
I  had  the  opportunity,  some  weeks  ago,  of  a  conversation  with  a 
Swiss  merchant,  coming  from  San  Francisco,  who  not  only  corrobo- 
rated the  above  information,  but  showed  me  a  phial  containing  the 
"Chinese  medicine,"  which  he  had  bought  there  himself  in  a  Chinese 
pharmaceutical  shop.  The  owner  of  the  phial  had  frequently  used  it, 
and  spoke  in  high  terms  of  the  good  effects  of  the  oil.  The  phial 
contained,  I  think,  even  less  than  half  a  drachm  (price  one  dollar !), 
and  was  labelled,  Fook  Ohang  Yong,  wholesale  and  retail  druggist 
and  chemist,  744  Sacramento  street,  corner  Dupont,  San  Francisco. 
I  was  suspicious  enough  to  suppose  the  oil  to  be  common  pepper- 
mint oil,  of  American  or  English  origin,  procured,  perhaps,  by  the 
Chinese  in  San  Francisco,  although  the  said  merchant  firmly  believed, 
for  good  reasons,  as  he  thought,  it  was  directly  imported  from  China. 
Having  pointed  out  the  magnificent  fluorescence  which  nitric  acid 
imparts  to  peppermint  oil,t  I  found  that  the  above  Chinese  oil  par- 
takes not  at  all  of  this  reaction  ;  it  is  not  colored  by  nitric  acid  (1*20 
sp.  gr.),  even  when  gently  warmed  with  it. 
A  few  drops  of  the  oil  exposed  for  some  hours  only  on  a  glass  slide 
yielded  abundantly  crystals  of  a  camphor,  reminding  me  in  every  re- 
spect of  the  solid  Japanese  peppermint  oil,  which  during  the  past  few 
years  has  been  met  with  in  European  trade. 
In  both  the  above  respects  the  Chinese  peppermint  oil  is  conse- 
quently different,  at  least,  to  most  of  the  specimens  of  European  and 
*  See  Pharm.  Journ.,  No.  26,  1870,  p.  426. 
t  See  Pharm.  Journ.,  Feb.,  1871',  p.  682,  and  Aug.,  1871,  p.  714 ;  also  Ameri- 
Journ.  of  Pharm.,^1871,  p.  164. 
