328  Distillation  of  Peppermint  Plants.  {^"^inv^A^"^' 
THE  TREATMENT  AND  DISTILLATION  OF  PEPPER- 
MINT PLANTS.^ 
By  Albert  M.  Todd. 
"  It  has  been  claimed  that  the  herb  peppermint,  when  freshly  cut 
yields  more  oil  than  when  dried.  Is  this  so,  and  does  the  increased 
yield  of  oil  compensate  for  the  increased  expense  of  shipping  the 
fresh  herb  to  the  distiller  ?  " 
This  question  has  long  been  a  disputed  one,  and  the  discussions  have 
attracted  the  interests  of  both  scientists  and  manufacturers.  That  the 
importance  of  making  a  determination  which  would  be  satisfactory- 
and  final  will  be  better  understood,  I  will,  before  stating  the  results  of 
my  experiments,  give  a  brief  description  of  our  novel  industry,  pre- 
facing the  description  with  the  single  remark  that  distillation  is  ef- 
fected with  three-fold  the  rapidity  from  the  dry  rather  than  from 
the  green  plants. 
There  are  now,  [in  1888],^  cultivated  annually  in  the  L^nited 
States  [almost  wholly  in  the  states  of  Michigan  and  New  York],  over 
twenty  thousand  tons  of  peppermint  plants,  yielding  over  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  essential  oil,  thus  requiring  on  the 
average  the  production  and  handling  of  about  three  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  of  plants  in  the  undried  state  for  a  single  pound  of  the  essential 
oil.  There  are  now  in  America,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  small  dis- 
tilleries, where  the  crude  or  natural  oil  is  produced,  each  distiller  dis- 
tilling, besides  his  own  crop,  the  plants  of  about  ten  neighboring 
growers  on  the  average,  making  the  number  of  persons  engaged  in 
the  industry  as  principals  over  two  thousand  five  hundred,  beside  a 
large  number  of  workmen  employed  in  the  cultivation  and  distilla- 
tion. 
The  distillers'  charge  for  working  up  the  plants  of  other  growers, 
has  by  custom  been  based  upon  the  number  of  pounds  of  oil  ob- 
tained rather  than  upon  the  quantity  of  plants,  the  present  rate  in 
^  Read  before  the  Xe  w  York  State  Pharmaceutical  Association,  June  1888 ;  com- 
municated by  the  Author. 
^NoTE. — During  the  past  few  years  the  consumption  of  peppermint  has 
rapidly  increased,  so  that  statistics  of  production  and  distilleries  now  given, 
show  a  marked  increase  over  those  given  in  my  former  papers  on 
analogous  subjects,  which  may  be  found  as  follows :  in  the  "  Proceedings 
of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association"  for  1886,  page  121,  and  the 
"  American  Druggist"  for  September  1886,  page  161. 
