Oil Of Turpentine from 1907

Oil Of Turpentine, Oleum Terebinthinae 1907

_ "A volatile oil recently distilled from turpentine. It should be kept in well-stoppered bottles."U.S. " The oil distilled, usually by the aid of steam, from the oleo-resin (turpentine) obtained from Pinus sylvestris, Linn., and other species of Pinus; rectified if necessary." 

Huile volatile de Terebenthine., Oleum Terebinthine, Terpentinol, Essenza di trementina, Esencia de trementina, Aceite volatil de trementina,

This oil is commonly called spirits (or spirit) of turpentine. It is prepared by distillation from our common turpentine, though equally afforded by other varieties. It may be distilled either with or without water, but in the latter case a much higher temperature is required, and the product is liable to be empyreumatic. To obtain it quite pure it should be redistilled from a solution of potassium hydroxide. The turpentine of Pinus palustris is said to yield about 17 per cent, of oil, while that from Pinus Pinaster affords 25 per cent., and that from Pinus sylvestris 32 per cent. Large quantities are distilled in North Carolina, The exportations from the United States for the year ending June 30, 1903, amounted to 16,378,787 gallons, valued at $8,014,322, and for the year ending June 30, 1904, to 17,202,808 gallons, valued at $9,446,155.

Pure oil of turpentine is "a thin, colorless liquid, having a characteristic odor and taste, both of which become stronger and less pleasant by age and exposure to the air. Specific gravity: 0.860 to 0.870 at 25° C. (77° F.). When Oil of Turpentine is larger part should pass over and 162° C. (311° and 323.6° in 3 times its volume of alcohol. If 5 Cc. of Oil of Turpentine be shaken with an equal volume of potassium hydroxide T.S., its color should not become darker than a light straw-yellow upon standing twenty-four hours. If 1 Cc. of the Oil be evaporated in a small dish on a water-bath, it should leave not more than a very slight residue (absence of petroleum, paraffin oils, or rosin). Three drops of Oil of Turpentine, placed on a sheet of clean white filter paper and exposed to the air, should evaporate entirely without leaving a permanent stain (absence of kerosene or rosin oil). If 5 Cc. of Oil of Turpentine be placed in a small beaker, and 20 Cc. of sulphuric acid be gradually added, with agitation, while the beaker is cooled by immersion in cold water, and the contents, after cooling' and renewed agitation, be transferred to a burette, graduated in tenths, the clear layer which forms after the dark mass has settled should not measure more than 0.35 Cc. (absence of petroleum benzin, kerosene, or similar hydrocarbons)." U.S. " Limpid, colorless, with a strong peculiar odor, which varies in the different kinds of Oil, and a pungent and somewhat bitter taste. It is soluble in its own volume of glacial acetic acid. It commences to boil at about 320° F. (160° C.), and almost entirely distils below 356° F. (180° C.), little or no residue remaining." Br. As found in commerce, it always contains oxygen, but when perfectly pure it consists exclusively of carbon and hydrogen, and is composed of one or more terpenes. (See p. 812.) The English or American oil (prepared from Pinus australis) is composed of dextropinene, while the French oil (prepared from Pinus Pinaster) is composed of levo-pinene. On the other hand, the Russian turpentine contains, in addition to pinene, dipentene (or cinene) and sylvestrene, and the Swedish turpentine contains pinene and sylves trene. Both the American and the French oil of turpentine boil at about 156° C. (312.8° F.). On heating oil of turpentine to about 300° C. (572° F.) in a sealed tube for several hours it is converted into a polymer called iso-terebenthene, which is so oxidizable that it is converted into a viscid mass on exposure to the air for a few hours. It has, moreover, a marked odor, resembling oil of lemon, and boils at 176° to 177° C. (348.8° to 350.6° F.). On treatment with a small portion of sulphuric acid, oil of turpentine yields an optically inactive liquid, which boils at 160° C. (320° F.). This is a mixture resolvable by repeated fractional distillation into terebene, boiling at 150° C. (302° F.); cymene, boiling at 175° C. (347° F.); a small quantity of a camphor-like body, boiling at 200° C. (392° F.); colophene, boiling at 318° C. (604.4° F.), and a mixture of semi-solid products of higher boiling point. Oil of turpentine absorbs hydrochloric acid gas, forming with it two compounds, one a red dense liquid, the other a white crystalline substance resembling camphor, and hence called artificial camphor. Both are mono-hydrochlorides but the latter is much more stable, and can be purified by crystallization from alcohol or ether. When turpentine oil is left in contact with concentrated hydrochloric acid a dihydrochloride is formed. This forms rhombic plates, insoluble in water, and decomposed by boiling with alcoholic potash, with formation of terpinol. (Alien, Com. Org. Anal., vol. ii. p. 51.) Nitric acid converts oil of turpentine into resin, and by long boiling into terebic acid. Mixed with water and chlorinated lime, and then distilled, the oil yields a liquid which Chautard found to be identical with chloroform (Ibid.,3e ser., xxi. 88). Turpentine oil and other terpenes unite with water to form crystals of terpin hydrate, which sublimes often from turpentine oil which has long stood in contact with water and has then been heated to water bath temperature. These crystals are sometimes found in nature also. The presence of alcohol with the water and turpentine oil facilitates their formation. Thus, a mixture of 1 part of nitric acid, 1 part of alcohol, and 4 parts of turpentine oil, spread out in flat dishes, will yield within a few days crystals amounting to 20 per cent, of the oil taken. If these crystals be fused at 116° C. they will lose water, and terpin, 2, will remain in crystalline needles, fusing at 104° C., and boiling at 258° C. If either of the hydrates just mentioned be boiled with sulphuric, phosphoric, or glacial acetic acid, terpineol, will be formed along with hydrocarbons of the formula such as terpinene, terpinolene, and dipentene. Terpineol is a thick, colorless, optically inactive liquid, with a pleasant hyacinthine odor and a bitter, feebly pungent taste. It is used extensively in perfumery. Baeyer (Her. d. Chem. Ges., 26, p. 826) has also pre pared the methyl ether of terpineol. Oil of turpentine may be made to yield cymene identical with that existing in the oil of cumin and with that obtained by dehydrating camphor. (See Cumin Seed, in PAET II.) Exposed to the air the oil absorbs oxygen, becomes thicker and yellowish, and loses much of its activity, owing to the formation of resin. A small proportion of formic acid is said also to be generated. Hence the Edinburgh College directed the oil to be rectified by distilling it with about four measures of water. But the process is difficult, in consequence of the great inflammability of the vapor, and its rapid formation, which causes the liquid to boil over. In this country it is scarcely necessary, as the recent oil can be obtained at an expense less than that which would be incurred by redistillation on a small scale. Another mode of purifying the oil is to agitate it with one-eighth of alcohol, which dissolves the resinous portion. About one-fifth of the alcohol is retained by the oil, but is readily separated by agitation with water. (See Oleum Terebinthincae Rectificatum.) For tests, see Proo. A. Ph. A., 1893, 156.

C. T. Kingzett has shown that the atmospheric oxidation of turpentine is accompanied by the formation of a body having the formula which he regards as camphoric peroxide. This substance, by the action of water, is converted into hydrogen peroxide and camphoric acid. The disinfectant known as " Sanitas " is produced by passing air through Russian oil of turpentine in contact with warm water. Berthelot has shown that oil of turpentine has, under certain conditions, the power, while undergoing oxidation itself, of causing the oxidation of other bodies, to which it imparts a portion of the oxygen absorbed from the air. All that is necessary to give this power to the oil is that soon after distillation it should be exposed to the air, as in a bottle half filled. Solar light assists, but is not essential to, the change, which goes on even in the dark. The oil retains indefinitely the property thus acquired, but may be deprived of it by exposure to a boiling heat, or by agitation with certain other substances, as potassium pyrogallate. No other chemical or physical change can be detected in the oil. •(J. P. C., Mai, 1860, 351.)

In this country the oil of turpentine is frequently adulterated with petroleum distillates. The adulteration is best detected by the treatment with sulphuric acid followed by steam distillation of the oil layer remaining above the sludge acid; this treatment with acid and after-distillation to be repeated if necessary. The sulphuric acid will thus completely polymerize and resinify the essential oil, leaving the paraffin hydrocarbons unaffected in the residual oily layer. A shorter and more readily executed test with sulphuric acid, though not so complete, is now given in the official test of the U. S. Pharm. 8th Rev.

Considerable quantities of a turpentine obtained by steam distillation of the so-called " lightwood" or resin saturated stumps and pieces of pine wood, have been offered in recent years. For an experimental study of this process and an account of the product see an article by Walker, Wiggins and Smith (Chemical Engineer, Dee. 1905, p. 78).

The several species of pine indigenous to California and the slopes of the Sierra Nevada appear to yield quite different products. Wenzell (A. J. P., March, 1872) described, under the name of abietene, an oil distilled from the exudation of the Pinus sabiniana (Nut Pine or Digger Pine). He found it to have a sp. gr. of 0.694, and to boil at 101° C. (213.8° F.). Sadtler (A. J. P., April, 1879, p. 176) examined an oil of turpentine from California said to have been obtained from the Pinus ponderosa (Heavy Pine), and found it to agree substantially with Wenzell's abietene. It had a sp. gr. at 16.5° C. (62° F.) of 0.6974, boiled at 101° C. (213.8° F.), and was slightly lasvogyrate. It gave negative results when treated with hydrochloric acid for the formation of a hydrochloride, did not form a hydrate, and was not acted upon by sulphuric acid or by nitrosyl chloride. These anomalous results were at once explained by the publication of a study of the abietene which had been made by Thorpe, who showed (A. J. P., 1879, p. 293) that this exudation of the California pine is almost pure heptane, C7Hie, one of the chief constituents of American petroleum. His results were also confirmed by Sehorlemmer, who established the identity of the pine heptane with that from petroleum naphtha.

Uses.—Oil of turpentine is stimulant, diuretic, occasionally diaphoretic, anthelmintic, in large doses cathartic, and externally rubefacient. Swallowed in moderate quantities it produces a sense of warmth in the stomach, accelerates the circulation, and increases the heat of the skin, without especially affecting the functions of the brain. In small doses frequently repeated it stimulates the kidneys, augmenting the secretion of urine, and often producing, especially if long continued, painful irritation of the urinary passages, amounting sometimes to violent strangury. At the same time it imparts the odor of violets to the urine, and this effect is also produced by its external application, or even by breathing the air of an apartment impregnated with its vapors. In large doses it occasions slight vertigo, or a sense of fullness in the head, sometimes amounting to intoxication, attended frequently with nausea, and succeeded generally, though not always, by speedy and brisk catharsis. When this effect is experienced, the oil is carried out of the bowels, and, no time being allowed for its absorption, is less prone to irritate the kidneys and bladder than if given in small and repeated doses. Iu some constitutions it produces, even whea taken internally, an erythematous eruption on the skin. Persons who inhale its vapor are liable to strangury and even bloody urine. Haematuria is sometimes caused in seamen on board vessels loaded with turpentine. A woman was found dead after having swallowed a large quantity of the oil, probably about six ounces. (Am. J. M. S., Oct. 1858.)

The oil is employed in numerous diseases. As a stimulant it sometimes proves serviceable in low forms of fever. We have found it extremely useful in the advanced stage of typhoid or enteric fever, and especially in cases in which the tongue has partially or completely thrown off its fur in flakes, and afterwards become dry, with a surface destitute of its ordinary papillary appearance, and often contracted and fissured. The remedy has in our hands proved almost uniformly successful under these circumstances. With small doses of the oil frequently repeated, the tongue becomes moist and again coated, the tympanitic state of the bowels disappears, and the patient goes on to recovery as in a favorable case of fever. Its efficiency, however, in typhoid fever is ascribable not so much to its stimulant properties as to an alterative influence upon the ulcerated surface of the bowels characteristic of that disease, and the remedy is often of great service when during the convalescence from typhoid fever diarrhoea due to slow healing of the ulcers occurs. In chronic rheumatism, particularly sciatica and lumbago, the oil has often been given with great benefit. It has also been much extolled as a remedy in some forms of puerperal fever, in neuralgia, in passive hemorrhages, particularly from the bowels, in chronic dysentery and diarrhoea, in obstinate gleets and leucorrhaia, in retention and incontinence of urine from debility, in chronic nephritic and calculous affections, and in various conditions of whooping cough. In certain cases of dysentery, whether acute or chronic, when the tongue is quite dry, and smooth as if from defect of the papillary structure, no remedy has proved so efficient in our hands as oil of turpentine. We have seen it also very beneficial in hcemoptysis. As a vermifuge it is highly esteemed, especially in cases of tcenia. It appears to destroy or debilitate the worm, which, losing its hold upon the bowels, is then easily discharged. In cases of worms in the stomach this oil is very useful, and in amenorrhcea from torpor of the uterine vessels it is occasionally of service. (A. J. P., March, 1869.)

The dose for ordinary purposes is from five to thirty minims (0.3 to 1.8 Co.), repeated every hour or two in acute, and three or four times a day in chronic diseases. In rheumatism it is recommended by some in the dose of a fluidrachm (3.75 Cc.) every four hours. As a remedy for tape woira the dose is from one-half to one fluidounce (15 to 30 Cc.), followed by castor oil in half an hour. It has also proved successful in tasnia in the dose of thirty minims (1.8 Cc.), twice a day, continued for a considerable time. In ordinary cases of worms, the usual dose may be given. It may be administered on sugar, or in emulsion with gum arabic, loaf sugar, and cinnamon, or mint water. As its taste is very disagreeable to some persons, it may be administered in capsules.

In the form of enema, the oil is highly useful in cases of ascarides, of obstinate constipation, and especially of tympanites. From half a fluidounce to two fluidounces (15 to 60 Cc.) may be administered in some mucilaginous fluid. Externally applied, oil of turpentine irritates and speedily inflames the skin, and is one of the most efficacious rubefacients; it is used in rheumatic affections, and in various internal inflammations. When only a slight impression is desired, it may be diluted with olive oil, but in some constitutions, even in this state, it produces such violent inflammation of the skin, with extensive eruptions, as to render its external use in any shape improper. Applied to recent burns, it is thought by some to be highly useful in allaying the burning pain and promoting a disposition to heal. For this purpose, however, it is 'usually mixed with rosin cerate (basilicon ointment), so as to form a liniment capable of being spread upon linen rags. (See Linimentum Terebinthince.) Beullard has found it useful in eczema, applied directly to the affected part. It causes immediately severe pain and much swelling, and in a few minutes must be removed, and followed by cooling and demulcent measures. A modification of the disease is thus produced, which renders ordinary applications successful that had been previously useless. (Ann. Ther., 1865, p. 138.) It is thought by von Erlaeh and Lucke of Berne, to be peculiarly efficacious in parasitic affections of the scalp, by destroying the parasites and preventing the development of the spores. (Am. J. M. S., July, 1869, p. 248.)

Oil of turpentine has been recommended, in the form of bath, in affections in which its constitutional impression is desired. For this purpose, T. Smith of Cheltenham, England, employs from five to ten fluidounees of the oil, with half a fluidounce of oil of rosemary, and two pounds of sodium carbonate, in each bath. The breath becomes strongly impregnated with the terebinthinate odor. (Braithwaite's Retrospect, xxi. 355.) Applied in vapor, the oil is said to be a very speedy cure for the itch.

The bed and night clothes are sprinkled with thirteen fluidraehms of the oil, and on awaking in the morning the patient is usually cured. (Am. J. M. 8., July, 1857, p. 232.) Baths of the vapor of turpentine are stated to be very-beneficial in chronic rheumatism. They are said to be borne well, for twenty-five minutes, at a temperature of from 60° to 71.1° C. (140° to 160° F.). (A. G. M., 4e ser., xxviii. 80.) Inhalation of the vapor has been recommended by Skoda in gangrene of the lungs. For internal use the rectified oil should be used. (See Oleum Terebinthince Rectificatum.)

Dose, five minims to one fluidrachm (0.3 to 3.75 Co.).
Off, Prep.—Linimentum Terebinthinse, U. 8., Br.; Linimentum Terebinthinte Aceticum, Br.; Oleum Terebinthinse Kectiflcatum, U. S.

Taken from; The Dispensatory Of The United States Of America. Nineteenth Edition. By Dr. Geo. B.Wood And Dr. Franklin Bache. Thoroughly Revised, Largely Rewritten, And Based Upon The Eighth Decennial Revision Of The United States Pharmacopoeia Issued June 1, 1907.