THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
MARCH,  1888. 
A^JALYSIS  OF  THE  VOLATILE  OIL  OF  MONARDA 
PUNCTATA,  LINNfi. 
A  Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory'  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy. 
By  Hermann  J.  M.  Schroetee. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  February  21. 
Horsemint  is  a  perennial  herb,  indigenous  to  the  United  States,  and 
belonging  to  the  natural  order  Labiatse ;  the  leaves  and  tops  being 
used  in  the  preparation  of  the  volatile  oil.  This  volatile  oil  is  de- 
scribed as  having  a  yellowish  or  brownish-red  color,  lighter  than  wa- 
ter, and  crystallizing  below  5°  C.  It  consists  of  an  elseopten,  which 
has  not  been  examined ;  and  a  stearopten,  which  is  thymol  CioHj^O, 
identical  with  that  obtained  from  oil  of  thyme. 
Oil  of  horsemint,  as  far  as  could  be  found,  has  only  been  examined 
by  Arppe  (1846,  Liebig's  Annalen,  Iviii.  41),  who  separated  an 
elseopten  and  a  stearopten.  The  results  of  his  experiments  with  the 
latter  compound  showed  the  following  composition  : 
Calculated  for  CiqHi^O.    Thymol.    Arppe  (mean). 
C— 80-00 
H— 9-33 
O— 10-67 
78.88 
9-42 
11-70 
He  also  gave  the  composition  of  the  elseopten,  which  boiled  at 
224°  C,  as  follows  :  C— 86-41 ;  H— 9-85;  O— 3-74. 
The  analysis  of  this  oil  w^as  conducted  in  the  Chemical  Laboratory 
of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  under  the  direction  of  Pro- 
fessor Trimble. 
Three  samples  of  the  oil  were  used  to  experiment  with. — Sample 
No  I,  was  a  specimen  from  the  Museum  of  this  College,  which 
