Allspice Oil

pimenta dioica
pimento officinalis, (LINDL.)
Myrtaceae

CONSTITUENTS
Chief constituent of Pimento
is from 3 to 4.5 per cent of a volatile oil, contained
in glands in the pericarp of the seeds and obtained
by distillation from the fruit.

Occurs as a yellow or yellowish-red liquid,
becoming gradually darker on keeping and having
a pleasant aromatic odor, somewhat similar to that
of oil of cloves, and a pungent, spicy taste.

It has a slightly acid reaction.
It is soluble in all proportions of alcohol.

The specific gravity is 1.030 to 1.050.
Its chief constituent is the phenol Eugenol,
which is present to the extent
of 60 to 75 per cent, and a sesquiterpene,
the exact nature of which has not yet been ascertained.
The specific gravity to some extent indicates
the amount present; if lower than 1.030, it may be
assumed that some eugenol has been removed, or that
the oil has been adulterated with substitutes having
a lower specific gravity than that of eugenol.

Eugenol can be determined by shaking the oil
with a solution of potassium hydroxide and measuring
the residual oily layer.

The United States Pharmacopoeia specifies that at least
65 per cent by volume of eugenol should be present.

On shaking the oil with an equal volume of strong
solution of ammonia, it should be converted
into a semisolid mass of eugenol-ammonium.

The clove-like odor of the oil is doubtless due
to the eugenol, but the characteristic odor is due
to some other substance or substances as yet unknown.
A certain amount of resin is present,
but the oil has not yet been fully investigated.

Bonastre obtained from the fruit, a volatile oil,
a green fixed oil, a fatty substance in yellowish flakes,
tannin, gum, resin, uncrystallizable sugar, coloring
matter, malic and gallic acids, saline matter and lignin.

The green fixed oil has a burning, aromatic taste
of Pimento and is supposed to be the acrid principle.
Upon this, together with the volatile oil, the medicinal
properties of the berries depend, and as these two
principles exist most in the shell, this part
is the most efficient.
According to Bonastre, the shell contains
10 per cent of the volatile and 8 per cent
of the fixed oil; the seeds only 5 per cent
of the former and 2.5 of the latter.
Berzelius considered the green fixed oil of Bonastre
to be a mixture of the volatile oil, resin,
fixed oil and perhaps a little chlorophyll.

On incineration, the fruits yield
from 2.5 to 5 per cent of ash.

They impart their flavor to water and all
their virtues to alcohol.
Infusion is of a brown color and reddens litmus paper.

Leaves and bark abound in inflammable particles.


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