Essence of Pear. Syn. Essence of jargonelle.
Essence of Pen′nyroyal. See Essentia pulegii, E. menthæ p., L. Prep. From pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), as Essence of peppermint. Stimulant, carminative, and emmenagogue. Used in dispensing, especially to make extemporaneous pennyroyal water.
Essence of Pep′permint. Syn. Essentia menthæ piperitæ (B. P.) L. Prep. 1. (B. P.) Oil of peppermint, 1 part; rectified spirit, 4 parts. Mix.—Dose, 10 to 20 minims.
2. To the last add of herb peppermint, parsley leaves, or spinach leaves (preferably one of the first two), 1⁄2 oz., and digest for a week, or until sufficiently coloured. Sap green (10 or 12 gr., rubbed up with a teaspoonful of hot water) is also used for the same purpose. A delicate light green.
3. (Ph. U. S.) Oil of peppermint, 2 fl. oz.; rectified spirit, 16 fl. oz.
Obs. Essence of peppermint is not conceived to be good by the ignorant unless it has a pale-greenish tint, which they take as a proof of its being genuine. The most harmless way of tinging it is that indicated above. A little green mint or parsley will, indeed, be found to improve the flavour. These additions are quite harmless. The practice of using cupreous salts, adopted by some lazy and unprincipled makers, is unpardonable, and admits of no excuse, even a lame one, as not the least advantage, either of convenience, cost, or appearance, results from such a practice, while the colouring matter, though small in quantity, is nevertheless sufficient to impart a noxious quality to the liquid. This fraud may be detected by the addition of liquor of ammonia in excess, which will strike a bluish or greenish-blue colour when copper is present.
Essence of peppermint (like that of most of the other aromatic oils) is cordial, stimulant, and stomachic. A few drops (10 to 30) on sugar, or mixed with a little water or wine, is an excellent remedy in flatulence, colic, nausea, sickness, &c. It is also extensively used as a flavouring ingredient by cooks, confectioners, and druggists. A few drops, well agitated with half a pint of cold water, form an excellent extemporaneous peppermint water.
The formulæ 1 and 2, generally the latter, are those employed by the respectable portion of the London trade. The various published receipts for this and similar essences, ordering the essential oil in a larger proportion than
that directed above, are never adopted in practice, and their products (often impossible combinations) exist only in the imaginations of the writers.
Essence of Pimen′to. See Essence of Allspice.