Essential oil

“ If made free from hydrocyanic acid, as the manufacturers should do, the essential oil is harmless in any quantity, and the essences, extracts, waters, etc., made from it can be used with entire safety. ”

“ Those who are much accustomed to see and examine Essential Oils, have seldom occasion to make the experiments here proposed for discovering their qualities. A certain degree of thickness, partaking of unctuosity, in an Essential Oil, convinces them that it is falsified with a Fat Oil: on the other hand, a greater degree of tenuity, together with a quicker smell, than a pure Essential Oil ought to have, discovers the admixture of Spirit of Wine. ”

“ In local rheumatic affections the skin may be painted beneficially with oil of Peppermint. For internal use, from one to three drops of the oil may be given as a dose on sugar, or in a spoonful of milk; but the diluted essence, made from some of the oil admixed with spirit of wine, is to be preferred. Put on cotton wool into the hollow of a carious tooth, a drop or two of the essential oil will often ease the pain speedily. The fresh plant, bruised, and applied against the pit of the stomach over the navel, will allay sickness, and is useful to stay the diarrhoeic purging of young children. ”

“ After the solvent has been distilled off, the less volatile essential oil remains in the still almost pure, containing only traces of wax, vegetable fat or coloring matter which are of no consequence for our purposes. ”

“ When the heat is made a little stronger than that which is necessary for the elevation of an Essential Oil, the acidity of the water that comes off is much more considerable. It hath now both colour and smell, and there rises with it a red, light Oil, that floats on the liquor in the receiver. This is not an Essential Oil; it hath none of the odour of the plant. Though so light as to float on water, yet it will not rise with the degree of heat that raises Essential Oils; even those that much surpass it in gravity, and will not swim on water as this does. ”

“ Despite the like chemical composition, all the essential oils display different physical qualities; they vary in density, in refractive power, in boiling-point (often by many degrees) , and, a matter of the greatest importance for our purposes, in their odor. We may state at once that but few essential oils can be said to have a pleasant odor; that of most of them is even disagreeable and narcotic to the olfactory nerves; it is only after the oil has been extremely diluted that the odor begins to become pleasant and to resemble that of the plant from which the oil was derived. ”

“ We should then have otto of lavender instead of essential oil of lavender, &c. &c. In this work it will be seen that the writer has generally used the word otto in place of "essential oil," in accordance with his views. Where there exists a solution of an essential oil in a fat oil, the necessity of some such significant distinction is rendered obvious, for commercially such articles are still called "oils"—oil of jasmine, oil of roses, &c. It cannot be expected that the public will use the words "fat" oil and "essential" oil, to distinguish these differences of composition. ”

“ Are native compounds of ethereal or essential oils, with resin, and frequently benzoic acid. Most of them have the consistence of honey; but a few are solid, or become so by keeping. They flow either spontaneously, or by incisions made from trees and shrubs in tropical climates. They possess peculiar powerful smells, aromatic hot tastes, but lose their odoriferous properties by long exposure to the air. They are insoluble in water; soluble, to a considerable degree, in ether; and completely in alcohol. When distilled with water, ethereal oil comes over, and resin remains in the retort. ”

“ Many essential oils frequently contain a trace of water, which does not materially interfere with this test, because, although the acetate of potash becomes moist thereby, it still retains its pulverent form.
A still more certain result may be obtained by distillation in a water bath. All the essential oils which have a higher boiling point than spirit, remain in the retort, whilst the spirit passes into the receiver with only a trace of the oil, where the alcohol may be recognized by the smell and taste. ”

“ The essential oil is manufactured on a large scale. According to a statement of the Chamber of Commerce of Leipzig, [1175] four establishments of that district produced in 1872 no less a quantity than 30,955 kilo. (68,277 lb.) , valued at £24,000.
Uses—Caraway in the form of essential oil or distilled water is used in medicine as an aromatic stimulant, or as a flavouring ingredient. But the consumption in Europe is far more important as a spice, in bread, cakes, cheese, pastry, confectionary, sauces, etc., or in the form of oil as an ingredient of alcoholic liquors. ”

“ If oil of turpentine, which is the cheapest of essential oils, be mixed with any of the more valuable kinds, it will be discovered by evaporation; a strong smell of turpentine being left on the paper, or cloth, upon which the evaporation was made.
Animal oil, like the vegetable, is of two kinds; the first butter, or fat, which is easily congealed, owing to the quantity of acid that is intimately combined with it. It resembles the sweet oil of vegetables in having no smell or taste. The other kind of animal oil is extracted by distillation from the flesh, the tendons, the bones, and horns, &c. ”

“ Essential Oils Economical The use of spice oils is more economical as far as the actual expense of the formula is concerned, and it is also very convenient, as you have your flavoring in small packages in a highly 89concentrated form. As these oils are distilled from spices which are wormy, or for some other reason not marketable as whole spices, the spice from which they are distilled can be obtained very cheap. As a rule the oils are distilled where the spices are grown, and only the essential oil is imported. ”

“ Essential oils, when added properly, produce a catsup of good flavor, and the product is in every way acceptable. A better flavor, however, can be obtained by the use of whole spices. A water extract obtained from whole spices is different from the essential oil of the spice. It contains the essential oil, part of it at least, but it also contains other substances which impart flavor. The flavor produced by whole spices is not quite as harsh as that produced by essential oils. ”

“ The whole herb contains resin, mucilage, sugar, a fixed oil, tannin, a colouring matter, malic or tanacetic acid, and water. When the camphoraceous bitter oil is taken in any excess it induces venous congestion of the abdominal organs, and increases the flow of urine.
If given in moderate doses the plant and its essential oil are stomachic and cordial, whether the leaves, flowers, or seeds be administered, serving to allay spasm, and helping to promote the monthly flow of women; the seeds being also of particular use against worms, and relieving the flatulent colic of hysteria. ”

“ But if an essential oil is exposed to the air, a peculiar, chemical alteration begins, which proceeds more rapidly and obviously if direct light acts upon the oil at the same time. The odor becomes less intense, the oil grows darker in color and more viscous, and also acquires a peculiar quality: it has a strong bleaching effect which is easily seen on the cork closing the bottle, which is beautifully bleached. ”

“ The fibro-vascular bundles, as well as the tissue bordering the oil-cells, assume a greenish black hue by alcoholic perchloride of iron. Oil-cells are also largely distributed in the leaves, petals and even the stamens of Eugenia.
Chemical Composition—Few plants possess any organ so rich in essential oil as the drug under consideration. The oil known in pharmacy as Oleum Caryophylli, which is the important constituent of cloves, is obtainable to the extent of 16 to 20 per cent. But to extract the whole, the distillation must be long continued, the water being returned to the same material. ”

“ Essential Oils, in a longer or shorter time, according to the nature of each, lose the fragrant smell they had when newly distilled, and acquire another, which is strong, rancid, and much less agreeable: they also lose their tenuity, becoming thick and viscid; and in this state they greatly resemble those substances abounding in Oil which flow from certain trees, and which are called Balsams or Resins, according as they are less or more consistent. ”

“ The best preparations for these purposes are, a strong infusion made from the dry leaves in water (which is much superior to one from the green herb) or rather a tincture or extract prepared with rectified spirit.
The essential oil, a simple and spirituous water, and a conserve, are kept in the shops: the Edinburgh College directs an infusion of the leaves in the distilled water. This herb is an ingredient also in the three alexitereal waters; and its essential oil in the stomach plaster and stomach pills.—Lewis's Mat. Med. ”

“ Rectification is of use not only for procuring to Essential Oils the tenuity and levity they may have lost by age, but also to separate them from other oily matters with which they may be adulterated. If, for instance, an Essential Oil be not properly distilled; if, by the addition of too much Salt, the water have acquired a degree of heat greater than that of pure boiling water, and if, in consequence thereof, some of the heavy Oil of the plant have risen with the Essential Oil, and mixed therewith, the Essential Oil may, by rectification, be separated from this heterogeneous Oil ”

“ Paste for Chapped Lips.—Put four ounces of olive oil into a bottle with one ounce of alkanet root; stop it up, and set it for some days in the sun, shaking it often until it becomes perfectly bright; then strain the oil from the alkanet, add to it one ounce of white wax, and one ounce and a half of clarified mutton suet: let the mixture simmer a little while over a slow fire. When it begins to cool, mix with it a few drops of any essential oil. ”

“ Essential oil, which may be obtained by distillation with water; fixed oil, bitter extractive, and resin. Solubility. Both water and alcohol extract its active principles. Med. Uses. It possesses highly stimulating properties, and has been used as a diaphoretic, anthelmintic, and emmenagogue. Rave, a German writer of great respectability, speaks of its use in chronic rheumatism in the highest terms; Alibert commends its anthelmintic powers, but its reputation has principally rested upon its generally acknowledged influence over the uterus. ”

“ Cahours’ excellent researches concerning the essential oil of gaultheria procumbens (a North American plant of the natural order of the Ericinæ of Jussieu,) which admits of so many applications in perfumery, have opened a new field in this branch of industry. The introduction of this oil among compound ethers must necessarily direct the attention of perfumers towards this important branch of compounds, the number of which is daily increasing by the labors of those who apply themselves to organic chemistry. ”

“ The admixture of an inferior essential oil with one more costly may be best detected by pouring a drop or two on a piece of porous paper or cloth, and shaking it in the air, when, if occasionally smelled, the difference of the odour at the beginning and the end of the evaporation will show the adulteration, especially if the added substance is turpentine. ”

“ When the distillation is finished, you will find [Pg 423] in the receiver a rectified Essential Oil, which will be clearer, thinner, and better scented, than before it was thus re-distilled; and in the bottom of the cucurbit will be left a matter of a deeper colour, more tenacious, more resinous, and of a less grateful smell.
OBSERVATIONS.
Essential Oils, even the purest, the best prepared, and the thinnest, suffer great changes, and are much impaired by growing old: they gradually turn thick and resinous ”

“ With respect to the perfumed oils in common use among the Hindostanee ladies, their preparation is very easy; being, for the most part, merely sweet oils of any kind; such as that extracted from linseed, or from the cocoa-nut, or from any plant coming under the denomination of metah, (i.e. sweet,) perfumed by means of a small quantity of the essential oil of any fragrant flower, particularly the rose, the jasmine, the bale, &c. All these oils are extremely common, rarely selling for more than two or three rupees per seer; which corresponds with about seven shillings for an English quart. ”

“ Furthermore, there is no sharp dividing line between the essential oils and certain esters of organic acids on the one hand and the fats on the other. For example, if an aromatic fluid essence is a light fluid, non-viscid, and easily volatile, it is usually classed with the organic esters; denser liquid substances, of oily or waxy consistency, and with comparatively slight odor and taste are usually fats, while oils of similar physical properties but possessing strong characteristic odors are classed as essential oils, regardless of their chemical composition. ”

“ The essential oils have no direct food value, but indirectly, like the organic acids, they assist in promoting favorable digestive action, and are also valuable because they impart a pleasant taste. Through poor methods of cooking and preparation, the essential oils are readily lost from some foods. ”

“ Although essential oils are volatile oils, volatile oils are not always essential ones as the term is understood. This is the case with the petroleum and paraffin oils obtained by the distillation of native petroleum and bituminous bodies. ”