Part 6

WILD SAGE.

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION AND DISTRIBUTION.

Artemisia frigida Willd., commonly known as wild sage, mountain sage, pasture sagebrush, and wormwood sage (figs. 3 and 4), is a hardy perennial 6 to 20 inches high, with a woody base and white silky leaves. The numerous yellow flowers, arranged in a racemelike head, possess a strongly camphoraceous odor. The leaves are also strongly aromatic. The plant abounds on dry sandy hilltops from the Dakotas west to Idaho, north into Canada, and as far south as Texas.

DISTILLATION OF THE OIL.

The oil distilled from wild sage was briefly reported by the writer in 1905 and 1906. The promising preliminary results encouraged a further investigation of this plant. During the summers of 1907 and 1908 larger quantities of this interesting wild plant were distilled in South Dakota, a yield of 0.26 per cent of a very fragrant essential oil being obtained from plants which had passed their flowering stage. When the plant is distilled during its flowering stage the yield of oil is about 0.41 per cent.

The oil obtained by the distillation of the whole plant was beautiful pale green in color, with an agreeable fatty and camphoraceous odor and a slightly bitter camphorlike taste. The specific gravity of the oil at 24° was 0.940; specific rotation A{D} = -24.2°; re-fraction N{D} 24°, 1.4716. The oil was soluble in 1 volume of 80 per cent alcohol, becoming turbid in 2 volumes or over.

SEPARATION OF STEAROPTENE.

During the distillation and filtration of the oil, small crystals were observed at the mouth of the distillation apparatus and also at the mouth of the funnel after standing over night. In order to separate this stearoptene (solid portion of the oil) from the elaoptene (liquid portion) 50 grams of the oil were subjected to a freezing mixture of ice and salt for several hours. As a result crystals separated in the form of white flakes. The crystals were thrown into a force filter and weighed, a total of 3 per cent resulting.

IDENTIFICATION OF CRYSTALLINE COMPOUND.

After recrystallization of the above crystals from alcohol the properties of the crystals compared very favorably with levo borneol, as shown in Table III.

+Table III.+--Comparison of properties of crystals from oil of wild sage and of pure borneol.

------------------+----------------------+---------------------- Test. | Crystals from oil | Crystals of pure | of wild sage. | borneol. ------------------+----------------------+---------------------- Color. | White. | White. Odor. | Camphorlike. | Camphorlike. Taste. | Bitter, camphorlike. | Bitter, camphorlike. Boiling point. | 210° to 215° C. | 212° C. Melting point. | 203° C. | 203° to 204° C. Specific rotation.| -32°. | -37°. ------------------+----------------------+----------------------

To further confirm the above results, which seemed to indicate that the compound was identical with levo borneol, an elementary analysis was made.

0.1237 gram of the substance gave 0.3499 gram CO_{2}, corresponding to 77.2 per cent carbon.

0.1237 gram of the substance gave 0.1252 gram H_{2}O, corresponding to 11.4 per cent hydrogen.

C{10}H{18}O/borneol requires { 77.8 per cent carbon. { 11.7 per cent hydrogen.

The elementary composition substantiates the assumption that the crystals are identical with levo borneol.

CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF THE OIL.

CHEMICAL CONSTANTS.

The usual chemical constants were determined, namely, the acid number, ester number, saponification number, and acetylization number.

The acid number, denoting the amount of free acids contained in the oil and expressed in milligrams of potassium hydroxid, was determined by simple neutralization of the oil with standard potassium hydrate volumetric solution.

The ester number, denoting the amount of esters (combination of alcohols and acids) in the oil and expressed in milligrams of potassium hydroxid, was determined by saponification of the ester compounds with alcoholic potassium hydrate.

The acetylization number, or the ester number determined after acetylization of the oil with acetic anhydrid, signifies the total amount of alcohol or alcohols in the oil.

The constants of the oil were determined with the following results:

Acid number, 2.5, calculated as acetic acid, indicates 0.26 per cent acetic acid.

Ester number, 25, calculated as bornyl acetate, indicates 8.7 per cent bornyl acetate, which is equivalent to 6.8 per cent of free borneol.

Saponification number, 27.5.

Acetylization number, 139, corresponds to 42.67 per cent of total borneol in the oil, or, deducting the 6.8 per cent of free borneol as the ester, to 38 per cent of free borneol.