part 21

(1877) of Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_.

[1781] _Phil. Mag._ xiii. (1838) 442.

HERBA THYMI VULGARIS.

_Garden Thyme_; F. _Thym vulgaire_; G. _Thymiankraut_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Thymus vulgaris_ L., a small, erect, woody shrub reaching 8 to 10 inches in height, gregarious on sterile uncultivated ground in Portugal, Spain, Southern France and Italy, and in the mountainous parts of Greece. On Mont Ventoux near Avignon, it reaches an elevation above the sea of 3700 ft. (Martins). It is commonly cultivated in English kitchens as a sweet herb,[1782] and succeeds as an annual even in Iceland.

=History=—We are not aware that thyme had any reputation in the antiquity, nor do we know at what period it was first introduced in northern countries. Garden thyme was commonly cultivated in England in the 16th century, and was well figured and described by Gerarde. It is even said to have been formerly grown on a large scale for medicinal use in the neighbourhood of Deal and Sandwich in Kent.[1783] _Camphor of Thyme_ was noticed by Neumann, apothecary to the Court at Berlin in 1725;[1784] it was called _Thymol_, and carefully examined in 1853 by Lallemand, and recommended instead of phenol (carbolic acid) in 1868 by Bouilhon, apothecary, and Paquet, M. D. of Lille.

=Description=—The plant produces thin, woody, branching stems, bearing sessile, linear-lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate leaves. These are about ¼ of an inch long, revolute at the margin, more or less hoary, especially on the under side, and dotted with shining oil-glands. The small purple flowers are borne on round terminal heads, with sometimes a few lower whorls. The entire wild plant has a greyish tint by reason of a short white pubescence, yet as seen in gardens the plant is more luxuriant, greener and far less tomentose. It is extremely fragrant when rubbed, and has a pungent aromatic taste.

=Production of Essential Oil=—Though cultivated in gardens for culinary use, common thyme is not grown in England on a large scale. Its essential oil (_Oleum Thymi_), for which alone it is of interest to the druggist, is distilled in the south of France. In the neighbourhood of Nîmes, where we have observed the process, the entire plant is used, and the distillation is carried on at two periods of the year, namely in May and June when the plant is in flower, and again late in the autumn. The oil has a deep, reddish-brown colour, but becomes colourless though rather less fragrant by re-distillation. The two sorts of oil, termed respectively _Huile rouge de Thym_ and _Huile blanche de Thym_, are found in commerce. The yield is about 1 per cent.

Oil of thyme is frequently termed in English shops _Oil of Origanum_, which it in no respect resembles, and which was never, so far as we know, found in commerce.[1785]

[1782] In many of the references to thyme, _Wild Thyme_ (_Thymus Serpyllum_ L.) is to be understood, and not the present species.

[1783] Booth in _Treasury of Botany_, ii. (1866) 1149.

[1784] _Phil. Trans._ No. 389.

[1785] For a note on _True Oil of Origanum_, see Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1851) 324, also _Science Papers_, 1876, p. 46.

=Chemical Composition=—The only constituent of the herb that has attracted any attention is the above-named essential oil. This liquid by fractional distillation is resolved into two portions: the first, more volatile and boiling below 180° C., is a mixture of two hydrocarbons, _Cymene_, C₁₀H₁₄ (see page 333), and _Thymene_, C₁₀H₁₆, the latter boiling at 165° C.

The second, named _Thymol_, C₁₀H₁₄O, which may also be extracted from the crude oil by means of caustic lye, has been described in our article _Fructus Ajowan_, at page 303. Commercial oil of thyme is said to be sometimes fraudulently deprived of thymol by that treatment.

=Uses=—Oil of thyme is an efficient external stimulant, and is sometimes employed as a liniment. Its chief consumption is in veterinary medicine. Thymol has been proposed as a disinfectant in the place of carbolic acid, in cases in which the odour of the latter is objectionable. The herb is not used in modern English medicine, but is often employed on the Continent.

HERBA ROSMARINI.

_Herba Anthos_; _Rosemary_; F. _Romarin_; G. _Rosmarin_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosmarinus officinalis_ L., an evergreen shrub, attaining a height of 4 feet or more, abundant on dry rocky hills of the Mediterranean region, from the Spanish peninsula[1786] to Greece and Asia Minor. It generally prefers the neighbourhood of the sea, but occurs even in the Sahara, where it is collected and conveyed by caravans to Central Africa.[1787] It does not succeed well in Germany.

=History=—Rosemary[1788] is mentioned by Pliny, who ascribes to it numerous virtues. It was also familiar to the Arab physicians of Spain, one of whom, Ibn Baytar (13th cent.), states it to be an object of trade among the vendors of aromatics.[1789] In the middle ages rosemary was doubtless much esteemed, as may be inferred from the fact that it was one of the plants which Charlemagne ordered to be grown on the imperial farms.

It was probably in cultivation in Britain prior to the Norman Conquest, as it is recommended for use in an Anglo-Saxon herbal of the 11th century.[1790] In the “Physicians of Myddvai” a curious chapter[1791] is devoted to the virtues of Rosemary, called “Ysbwynwydd, and Rosa Marina in Latin.” The essential oil was distilled by Raymundus Lullus[1792] about A.D. 1330. John Philip de Lignamine,[1793] a writer of the 15th century, describes Rosemary as the usual condiment of salted meats.

[1786] From Galicia in Spain, stems of Rosmarinus having 2½ inches in diameter were to be seen at the Paris Exhibition, 1878.

[1787] Duveyrier, _Les Touaregs du Nord_, 1864. 187.

[1788] From _ros_ and _marinus_,—literally _marine dew_. Various opinions have been held as to the allusion conveyed by the name.

[1789] Sontheimer’s translation, i. 73.

[1790] _Herbarium Apuleii_—_Leechdoms etc. of Early England_, i. (1864) 185.

[1791] _Meddygon Myddfai_ (see Appendix) p. 261. 292. 440.

[1792] Manget, _Bibliotheca chemica curiosa_, Genevæ, i. (1702) 829.

[1793] _Conservatorium Sanitatis_ (or also, according to Haller, _Biblioth. botanica_, i. 237, _De conservatione sanitatis_, Bononiæ, 1475) cap. 81.

=Description=—Rosemary has sessile, linear, entire, opposite leaves about an inch in length, revolute at the margin; they are of coriaceous texture, green and glabrous above, densely tomentose and white beneath. Examined under a lens, the tomentum both of the leaves and young shoots is seen to consist of white stellate hairs; in that of the shoots which is less dense, minute oil-glands are discernible. These glands are of two kinds, large and small, and probably do not yield one and the same oil. The flowers have a campanulate 2-lipped calyx, and a pale blue and white corolla, the upper lip of which is emarginate and erect, the lower 3-lobed with the central lobe concave and pendulous. The whole plant has a very agreeable smell and a strong aromatic taste. It flowers in the early spring.

=Production of Essential Oil=—Rosemary is cultivated on a very small scale in English herb-gardens, and though a little oil has been occasionally distilled from it, English oil of rosemary is an article practically unknown in commerce. That with which the market is supplied is produced in the south of France and on the contiguous coasts of Italy. The plant, which is plentifully found wild, is gathered in summer (not while in flower) and distilled, the operator being sometimes an itinerant herbalist who carries his copper alembic from place to place, erecting it where herbs are plentiful, and where a stream of water enables him to cool a condenser of primitive construction.

Oil of rosemary is also produced on a somewhat large scale in the island of Lesina, south of Spalato in Dalmatia, whence it is exported by way of Trieste, even to France and Italy, to the extent of 300 to 350 quintals annually.[1794]

Some of the French manufacturers of essences offer oil of rosemary at a superior price as drawn _from the flowers_, by which we presume is meant the _flowering tops_, for the separation of the actual flowers would be impracticable on a large scale. The great bulk of the oil found in commerce is however that distilled from the entire plant.

=Chemical Composition=—The peculiar odour of rosemary depends on the essential oil, which is the only constituent of the plant that has afforded matter for chemical research.

Lallemand (1859) by fractional distillation, resolved oil of rosemary into two liquids,—the one a mobile hydrocarbon boiling at 165° C. and turning the plane of polarization to the left; the other, boiling between 200° and 210° C., deposits when exposed to a low temperature a large quantity of camphor. Gladstone (1864) found the oil to consist almost wholly of a hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆. This, according to our experiments, constitutes about ⁴/₅ of the oil; it deviates the plane of polarization to the left, whereas a fraction boiling at 200° to 210° C. deviates to the right. By warming the latter with nitric acid, we observed the odour of common camphor, and may therefore infer that a compound, C₁₀H₁₈O, is present in the oil under examination.

From Montgolfier’s investigations (1876) it would appear that the stearoptene or camphor above alluded to is a mixture of a dextrogyrate and a lævogyrate substance.

[1794] Unger, _Der Rosmarin und seine Verwendung in Dalmatien—Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie_, lvi. (1867) 587; abstracted, with a few additions, in _Pharm. Journ._ ix. (1879) 618.

=Uses=—The flowering tops and dried leaves are kept by the herbalists, but are not used in regular medicine. The volatile oil is employed as an external stimulant in liniments, and also as a perfume. Rosemary is popularly supposed to promote the growth of the hair.

PLANTAGINEÆ.

SEMEN ISPAGHULÆ.

_Ispaghúl Seeds_, _Spogel Seeds_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Plantago decumbens_ Forsk. (_P. Ispaghula_ Roxb.),[1795] a plant of variable aspect, from an inch to a foot in height, erect or decumbent, with linear lanceolate leaves which may be nearly glabrous, or covered with shaggy hairs. The flower-spikes differ according to the luxuriance of the plant, being in some specimens cylindrical and 1½ inches long, in others reduced to a globular head. The plant has a wide range, occurring in the Canary Islands, Egypt, Arabia, Beluchistan, Afghanistan, and North-western India. Stewart[1796] says it is common in the Peshawar valley and Trans-Indus generally up to 2000 feet; also on the plains and lower hills of the Punjab, but that he has never seen it cultivated in the latter region. It is said to be cultivated at Multan and Lahore, also in Bengal and Mysore.

=History=—The seeds which are found in all the bazaars of India and are held in great esteem, are generally designated by the Persian word _Ispaghúl_; but they also bear the Arabic name _Bazre-qatúná_, under which we find them mentioned by the Persian physician Alhervi[1797] in the 10th century, and about the same period or a little later by Avicenna.[1798] Several other Oriental writers are quoted by Ibn Baytar[1799] as referring to a drug of the same name, which may possibly have included the seeds of other species, as _Plantago Psyllium_ L. and _P. Cynops_, having similar properties, and known to have been used from an early period.

J. H. Linck, whom we mentioned in our article on Oleum Cajuputi (p. 278), described in 1719 the seed under notice, yet without knowing its name; it further attracted the notice of Europeans towards the close of the last century,[1800] and has been often prescribed as a demulcent in dysentery and diarrhœa. It was admitted to the _Pharmacopœia of India_ of 1868.

[1795] After the examination of numerous specimens, we adopt the course taken by Dr. Aitchison (_Catalogue of the Plants of the Punjab and Sindh_, Lond. 1869) of uniting _P. Ispaghula_ to _P. decumbens_. The union of species in this group may probably be carried still further.—For a fig. see Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_,