APIOL  AS  A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  QUININE. 
45 
1st.  Apiol,  the  active  principle.  Under  this  name  we  wish  to 
include  all  of  that  botanical  species  whose  extracts  approach  the 
oils  in  their  characteristics,  without  at  this  time,  endeavoring  to 
point  out  to  what  class  of  chemical  compounds  they  should  be 
definitively  attached,* 
2d.  An  essential  volatile  oil. 
3d.  A  fatty  crystallizable  matter,  solid  at  an  ordinary  tempera- 
ture, but  becoming  fluid  at  2b°  centigrade,  which  we  have  called 
the  butter  of  parsley. 
4th.  Pectin,  a  vegetable  jelly  capable  of  furnishing  pectic 
acid,  and  the  pectates,  under  the  influence  of  the  alkalies.  This 
is  without  doubt  the  apiine  of  Bracconot. 
5th.  Chlorophylle. 
6th.  Tannin ;  a  yellow  coloring  matter  ;  ligneous  matter  and 
non-organic  salts  which  have  not  been  isolated. 
The  method  of  extracting  Apiol. — Apiol  is  obtained  by  treat- 
ing parsley  seed  pulverized  with  alcohol  (at  from  70°  to  80°  per 
cent.)  A  certain  amount  of  the  powder  is  put  in  an  apparatus 
for  displacement.  When  it  is  sufficiently  exhausted,  the  liquor 
collected  is  deprived  of  color  by  passing  it  through-  a  bed  of 
animal  charcoal,  and  then  distilled  into  a  vessel  holding  about 
three  quarts  of  alcohol.  The  residue  is  reabsorbed  by  ether  or 
chloroform,  and  separated  by  a  second  distillation.  Heat  is  ap- 
plied until  all  traces  of  these  menstrua  are  driven  off,  and  thei 
the  product  is  mixed  by  trituration,  with  one-eighth  of  its  weight 
of  litharge,  and  left  to  stand  forty-eight  hours.  After  which  it 
is  filtered  through  a  light  bed  of  charcoal,  and  the  apiol  is  ob- 
tained pure  and  colorless. 
Physical  Characters. — Apiol  presents  the  appearance  of  a  yel- 
low liquid  ;  oleaginous,  staining  paper  like  any  other  fatty  body, 
although  heat  will  drive  off  the  stain,  which  will  brown  before 
the  rest  of  the  paper,  and  lose  its  transparency.  It  has  a  special 
and  tenacious  odor,  which  is  somewhat  like  the  pulverized  seeds, 
but  differs  from  the  essential  oil,  which  has  a  terebinthine  smell, 
•Might  not  this  chemical  group  consist  of  the  different  organic  products 
which  have  been  extracted  from  the  seeds  of  many  of  the  umbelliferous 
plants,  and  which  are  similar  to  apiol  in  their  physical  and  chemical  char- 
acters; anisol,  cariol,  cuminol,  &c.j  extracted  from  the  seeds  of  the  anise3 
caraway  and  cumin  ? 
