1124
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
al
vulgaris *foliacea of Decandolle. Its leaflets are 0The larger prickles slightly falcate. . . j
Cultivated at Mitcham and other places for medic
with the var. aor rounded-oval.
purposes. s g
Description. —The petals of the hundred-leaved rose of
centifolia seu pallida) are commonly termed in the shops ProvtCabbage-rose leaves. They should be gathered when the flowers^,full blown, and before the petals begin to fall. Their odour is s t r °% eI1when they are of a fine pale red, and before they begin to fade. ^freed from the calyx cups and stamens they are to be dried in ta ^ nCe .Unlike the petals of R. gallica, desiccation diminishes their fragy 11 'Their odour is said to be singularly exalted by iodine (Chereau, J ,j u .de Pharm. xii. 442.) Their taste is sweetish, though somewhat a ^lous and bitter. To preserve them, rose leaves are frequently P lCsalted {flores rosce saliti) like elder flowers (see p. 1033). j g of
Composition. —I am unacquainted with any analysis of the p eIthe Rosa centifolia. The following, however, may be regarded a ® ^ascertained constituents:— volatile oil,gallic (and tannic ?) acid,eomatter, a saccharine matter (sweet extractive of Pfaff), woody ’neral salts, and oxide of iron.
1. Volatile Oil of Roses (Oleum Rosa, E. Attar or Otto of Roses). —Obtain e ^.^||e(lEast by distilling roses with water. The attar concretes and floats on the ^jii.water w hen cold (Polier , Asiat. Research, i. 332; Jackson, lid. New Phil- Join 71 'j| 0 yle,326). In Northern India , rose water and attar are distilled from R. damascene (^ g theIllustr. 203). The precise species of rose used at Ghazeepoor, in Hindostan, ”
attar is extensively distilled, as r — 11 - 1 01 - : — 11 — 1 -‘ sa ^’ s r,;
ascertained. At the latter placeIs it
well as at Shiraz, in Persia , has not been satiy^ j psj-a rose with white flowers is said to he used H ’ (er >"Nat. Pharm. ii. 127). Is it R. moschata? In the manufacture of rose - s f r e-England, from R. centifolia, a crystalline volatile oil with the odour of the at j e ssquently obtained (English attar of roses). Polier says, that to procure some be
than three drachms of attar from 100 lbs. of rose leaves, in India , the season^ 0 n every favourable, and the operation carefully performed. Jackson states, that belac of roses it is generally calculated that 180 grains, or one tolah of attar, ^, e j<rlitprocured. Heher (Narrative, i. 266) says, 20,000 roses yield attar equal j 1,
to that of a rupee. According to Donald Monro (Treat, on Med. and Pharm■ , a ] s in311) the attar is procured without distillation, merely by maceratin 1 ifiled to P r °‘water. But Trommsdorf (Martius, Pharmakogn.) tried the method, and fancure any oil. 0 „ it lS
Attar of roses is imported from Constantinople and Smyrna. The dutyIs. 4d. per lh. In 1838, 973 lbs. ; in 1839, 745 lbs. paid duty (Trade List.) j, , a ltn°-At temperatures below 80 p F. attar of roses is a crystalline solid. It county
colourless, but Polier says, colour is no criterion of its goodness, quality, er ]y dyUndiluted, its odour is somewhat too powerful to be agreeable, but, when P r l^j withfused through the air or some liquid, is most delicious. It is comhus F e ’lts. SP-, 1 1.oxygen forms an explosive mixture. It fuses at between 84° F. and 86 ° .. 337 ).
at 90° F. is 0 832; water at 60 Q F. being 10 . (Saussure, Ann. Chim. et PfPf 33 p aft5At 57 p F. 1000 parts of alcohol (sp. gr. O'806) dissolve 7 parts, and at 72of attar. . ]ts do
Attar of roses has been analyzed by Saussure and Blanchett, but their resaccord. .
Saussure's Ana y
Blanchett's Analysis.
Atoms. Eq.wt. Percent.
Carbon. 23 138 . 74 59
Hydrogen . 23 23 12'43
Oxygen . 3 24 . 12 98
Attar of Roses I
185
100 00
Carbon....HydrogenOxygenNitrogen.
per
82 '^134243-949
loot