Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry, 5th ed.

by Pierre Joseph Macquer

Before sun-rise gather a good quantity of the plant from which you design to express the juice, in order to obtain its Salt. Wash it well in running water, to clear it of earth, insects, and other adventitious matters. Bruise it in a marble mortar; put it into a bag of new, strong, thick linen cloth; tye the bag tight, and commit it to a press. By pressing it strongly you will squeeze out a great quantity of green, thick juice, which will have the same taste as the plant. Dilute this juice with six times as much pure rain-water, and filter it repeatedly through a woollen bag, till it pass clear and limpid. Evaporate the filtered juice with a gentle heat, till it be almost as thick as before it was mixed with water. Put this inspissated juice into a jar, or other vessel of earth or glass; on its surface pour olive oil to the depth of a line, and set it in a cellar. Seven or eight months after this, pour off gently the liquor contained in the vessel, the inside of which you will find covered with a crystallized Salt. Separate the crystals gently; wash them quickly with a little fair cold water, and dry them: this is the Essential Salt of the plant.

OBSERVATIONS.

Every plant is not equally disposed to yield its Essential Salt, by the method here proposed. Succulent vegetables only, whose juices are aqueous and not too viscous, are fit for this purpose. Such, for example, as sorrel, brook-lime, succory, fumitory, water-cresses, plantain, &c. An Essential Salt cannot be procured from those that yield thick, viscid, mucilaginous juices, such as the seeds of flea-wort; unless their juices be previously attenuated by fermentation, and that viscosity destroyed which obstructs the Crystallization of this Salt.

Nor can the Essential Salt be obtained in any quantity from vegetable matters abounding in Oil. Most kernels and seeds are of this sort: they all contain a great quantity of fat oil, which so entangles and clogs this Salt, that the particles thereof cannot shoot away from the tenacious juices into crystals.

The same is to be said of dry aromatic plants; because they contain much essential oil, or resinous matters that produce the same effect. It is true the Essential Salt itself contains a certain portion of oil; for it is no other than the Acid of the plant incorporated and crystallized with part of its oil and of its earth: but then the oil must not be in too great a quantity: because it sheaths the Acid, renders it clammy, as it were, and hinders it from extricating itself, so as to be able to exert its qualities, and appear in the form of Salt.

The plants, from which you intend to extract this Salt, should be gathered in the morning before sun-rise; because they are then most succulent, not being yet dried up or withered by the heat of the sun.

The juice of plants obtained by expression is very thick; because it contains many particles of the bruised plant, that are unavoidably squeezed out along with it. In order to clear it of these superfluous parts, it is proper to filter it; but as that would be difficult, on account of the thickness of the juice, it must be thinned, by diluting it with a quantity of water, sufficient to give it the requisite degree of fluidity.

Instead of thus diluting the expressed juice, the plant may be ground with water, before it is put into the press: it will by this means furnish a more fluid juice, that will easily pass through the filter. This method may be employed with success on dry plants, or such as are not very succulent. For this operation rain-water is to be preferred to any other; because it is the purest: for all waters that have run some time through the earth, or on its surface, are to be suspected of containing some saline or selenetic matter, which would mix with and deprave the Essential Salt.

The juice of the plant, when diluted with the quantity of water sufficient to facilitate its filtration, is too aqueous to let the Salt it contains unite into crystals: it must therefore be evaporated, till it hath recovered a somewhat thicker consistence. The heat applied for that purpose must be gentle; lest the acid and oily parts, that are to form the Salt, be spoiled or dissipated, as they are not very fixed. In summer, the heat of the sun is sufficient to effect this evaporation: but if you make use of this method, the juice to be evaporated must be put into several broad flat pans; that, a larger surface being exposed to the action of the air and sun, the evaporation may be the sooner completed: for if the juice should continue too long in the degree of heat requisite for its evaporation, it might begin to ferment; which would be very detrimental.