An acre of land generally yields every year from 3 to 4 tons of the peppermint plant; and from 500 parts of this, one part of essential oil is usually obtained, which it is alleged by M. Hanart, the distiller of the oil in question, after being carefully bottled and kept for some years, successfully rivals the English oil both in quality and price.
Of late years an essential oil of peppermint manufactured by Messrs Holchkiss, of New York, has lately come into considerable demand.
This, which is said to be a very pure article, differs from the other peppermint oils in becoming thick when first mixed with spirit of wine. After a short time, however, the mixture clears and becomes perfectly bright.
Oil of peppermint is stimulant, antispasmodic, and carminative, and has always been a favourite remedy in flatulence, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, cramp of the stomach, colic, griping pains, diarrhœa, the early stage of cholera, &c.—Dose, 1 to 3 drops, on sugar.
Oil of Petro′leum. See Naphtha, Oils (Mineral), Petroleum, &c.
Oil of Pim′ento. Syn. Oil of allspice; Oleum pimentæ (B. P., Ph. L., E., & D.), L. From the bruised fruit of Eugenia pimenta, allspice, or Jamaica pepper. Pale yellow, growing reddish brown by age; odour, a combination of cloves and cassia; taste pungent. Sp. gr. 1·021. Prod. 5% to 8%.
Obs. Oil of pimento contains two oils similar to those found in clove oil. When pure, nitric acid turns it red, with active effervescence and the assumption of a rusty brown colour. It combines with the salifiable bases in a nearly similar manner to oil of cloves. It is much used in perfumery, especially in hair cosmetics.
Oil of Pim′pernel. Syn. Oleum pimpinellæ, L. From the root of Sanguisorba officinalis, or pimpernel. Blue; carminative.
Oil, Pine-ap′ple. This artificial essential oil dates its commercial importance from the Great Exhibition of 1851. It is essentially butyric ether, and may be regarded as simply the crude form of that substance. On the large scale it is prepared by saponifying butter or crude butyric acid with a strong lye of caustic potassa, and dissolving the resulting soap in the smallest possible quantity of hot alcohol; to the solution is added a mixture of alcohol and oil of vitriol in excess, and the whole is then submitted to distillation as long as the product has an aromatic fruity odour; the product is rectified from dried chloride of calcium and a little litharge. Dissolved in rectified spirit it is much used as a flavouring substance by confectioners and liquoristes. See Ether (Butyric) and Essence of Pine-apple, &c.
Oil of Pota′to Spirit. See Fusel oil.