COMPOSITE 287
over a wide range of temperature, the whole of the distillate being blue
in colour, with the exception of a small fraction boiling at 250° to 270°
at 15 mm., which was a viscous liquid of green colour. The blue oil
contained furfuraldehyde, and deposited, on standing, a small amount
of a crystalline substance which was found to be umbelliferone methyl
ether. A portion of the essential oil, in ethereal solution, was shaken
with aqueous potassium carbonate solution, and a trace of a free fatty
acid obtained. No other constituent was identified.
Ghamomile oil is often adulterated with cedar and turpentine oils,
sometimes with copaiba oil, and, according to some authorities, with
milfoil oil. Some of the commercial oil is merely turpentine or lemon
oil or a mixture of these oils, distilled over chamomiles. This repre-
hensible custom of selling low-priced rubbish under unjustifiable names
is countenanced by even some reputable firms, who offer in their price
lists " chamomile oil" and " chamomile oil with lemon," the latter at
about one-fifth of the price of the former.
OIL OF FEVERFEW.The common feverfew, Pyrethrum parthenium (Matricaria par-
thenium), yields a small amount of essential oil of strong, characteristic
odour. The green flowering herb yields about -07 to -4 per cent, of an
oil of specific gravity -900 to '960. The dried herb yields rather less
oil than the fresh plant. Dessaignes and Chautard^1 investigated this
oil and stated that it contained a terpene and an oxygenated body
resembling camphor. In all probability this oxygenated body is a
mixture of camphor and borneol. Schimmel & Co. obtained 068 per
cent, of oil from the herbs, which had a specific gravity 960. Even at
the ordinary temperature it contained a considerable number of hexa-
gonal crystals, which appear to be borneol. Bornyl esters are also
present, but no camphor could be detected.
OILS OF ARTEMISIA.The principal essential oil of this group is that of Artemisia Absin-
thium, oil of wormwood, or oil of absinthe. It is distilled from the herb,
a plant indigenous to the mountainous regions of Northern Africa,
Southern Europe, and Northern Asia, and cultivated to a considerable
extent in North America, especially in the States of Michigan and
Indiana, and in Wayne County, New York State.
The oil is of a greenish or greenish-blue colour and of intense odour
and taste of the herb itself. It has the following characters :—
Specific gravity.
Refractive index.
Acid value.
Ester
(after acetylation)0-900 to 0-955 (rarely as low as 0-885)
1-4660 to 1*4750
0 „ 18
12 „ 185
100 „ 225
The above figures show that this oil is exceedingly variable in characters.
E. B. Miller
2
has examined six typical samples of Wisconsin oils,
and gives the following figures for the ester and acetylation values,
which do not indicate so great a variation as the above figures. In
the ester determination, the results for saponification in thirty minutes
and in sixty minutes are given.
1
Jour. prakt. Chem., 45 (1848), 45.
2
Bull. Univ. Wisconsin, 693.