Terebinthina (U. S. P.)—Turpentine.
Related entries: Terebinthina Canadensis (U. S. P.)—Canada Turpentine - Resina (U. S. P.)—Resin - Pix Liquida (U. S. P.)—Tar - Oleum Terebinthinae (U. S. P.)—Oil of Turpentine - Oleum Terebinthinae Rectificatum (U. S. P.)—Rectified Oil of Turpentine
A concrete oleoresin obtained from Pinus palustris, Miller (Pinus australis, Michaux), and from other species of Pinus.
Nat. Ord.—Coniferae.
COMMON NAMES: (Of Pinus palustris) Broom pine, Swamp pine, Yellow-pitch pine, Long-leaved pine; (Of oleoresin) White turpentine, Thus americanum, or Frankincense (Br. Pharm., 1898).
ILLUSTRATIONS: Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, 258 (Pinus Taeda, 259).
Botanical Source.—This tree is the Pinus australis of Michaux. Its trunk is from 60 to 80 feet high, about 40 or 50 feet of which distance, below the branches, has a diameter varying from 12 to 20 inches. The bark of the tree is slightly furrowed. The leaves are in threes, of a bright-green color, about a foot long, and conglomerate at the ends of the branches; the sheaths or stipules are pinnatifid, scaly, and persistent; the buds very long, whitish. Sterile aments violet-colored, 2 inches long. Strobiles or cones subcylindrical, muricate, with small recurved spines, and from 8 to 10 inches long. Seeds with a thin, white testa (W.).
This is a native tree, found in the middle, southern, and western states, in sandy plains and woods, but chiefly from Virginia to Florida, within 100 miles of the coast. Its timber is strong, compact, and durable, and is much used by carpenters and workers in wood. From this tree is obtained the principal supply of naval stores, i. e., resin, tar, etc., used in this and other countries.
Pinus Taeda, Linné, Loblolly, or Old-field pine.—A tree 80 or more feet high, with a trunk often 3 feet in diameter. The top is wide and spreading. The leaves are pale-green, about 6 to 10 inches long, borne in threes, the fascicles being invested with long, nearly entire sheaths. The fruit is an ovate-oblong cone, shorter than the leaves, and deflexed, the scales being armed with a strong, inflexed spine. Pinus Taeda inhabits old, dry, abandoned fields, and the barren, sandy soils from Virginia to Florida. An abundance of turpentine flows from it, but not so large a quantity is collected from it as from the first-named species. It is recognized in the British Pharmacopoeia as one of the sources of turpentine, named by that authority THUS AMERICANUM, or Frankincense.
Collection and Description.—In the southern states, turpentine is uniformly collected on the so-called turpentine farms by cutting a slanting cavity (box) into the tree, less than 1 foot above the ground. About the first of March, when the resin begins to flow, V-shaped strips of the bark above the box are removed, and, from time to time, when the edges of the cut bark become clogged, narrower strips are cut. The resin collects in the box during the warm season, especially in June, July, and August. That collected in the first year is called virgin dip. When the boxes are full, the turpentine is ladeled out into barrels, which are sent to the still in order to obtain from it oil of turpentine and resin (colophony). An inferior resin, called scrape, is that which is hardened and covers the denuded surface of the tree. Distilling of the oleoresin is carried out in the woods; the stills consist of copper retorts set into a brick furnace, each holding from 15 to 20 barrels of crude material. The resin is distilled with addition of water, the oil of turpentine (see Oleum Terebinthinae) being condensed in a large condensing-worm surrounded by cold water. The residue in the retort is filially drawn off, and constitutes resin (see Resina), or rosin (colophony), commercially distinguished as W. W. (water white), W. G. (window glass), the best grade, or N., the next best, M. K., etc. In the southern states, four consecutive seasons of bleeding exhaust the trees, and, as the margin of profit from one tree is exceedingly small, an immense acreage is annually invaded and devastated in order to keep the industry at a profitable level (United States Government Report, 1892; see Bastin and Trimble, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1896, pp. 242-253; also see L. J. Vance, ibid., 1895, p. 537, from Garden and Forest, 1895).
Ten thousand trees yield the first year 280 barrels of dip (each, 240 pounds) and 70 barrels of scrape; 1 barrel of dip yields 6 ½ gallons of spirits of turpentine, while 1 barrel of scrape yields only 3 gallons. The total result of the first year is 2000 to 2100 gallons of spirits of turpentine and 260 barrels of rosin (W. G.). The yield of dip decreases in subsequent years, while that of scrape increases, and is highest in the second year. The rosin of the fourth year's make is almost black, opaque, and generally inferior. In France, where a finer grade of turpentine is obtained from Pinus Pinaster, Solander, the trees last from 40 to 50 years, and longer, owing to a more economic management of the industry. The oleoresin is collected in cups, and the oil of turpentine distilled off by direct steam. The hardened oleoresin, which covers the scars, is scraped off, and is known as galipot. The turpentine of the American market has a yellowish tint, a rather agreeable odor, and a bitter, terebinthinate taste. It is readily dissolved in alcohol or ether (excepting mechanical impurities), and combines with the fixed oils. The U.S.P. describes terebinthina as "in yellowish, opaque, tough masses, brittle in the cold, crumbly-crystalline in the interior, of a terebinthinate odor and taste. The alcoholic solution has an acid reaction"—(U. S. P.). Chemically, it is a combination of resin (see Resina) and oil of turpentine (see Oleum Terebinthinae). (For Venice turpentine, Chios turpentine, etc., see Terebinthina Canadensis; also see R. G. Dunwody, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1890, p. 284; and E. L. Murray, ibid., p. 393, for interesting notes on turpentine.)
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—The turpentines act as local irritants, occasioning heat, redness, and even inflammation of the skin. Taken internally, they act more especially on the mucous tissues, lessening excessive morbid discharges. They have a diuretic influence on the urinary apparatus, imparting to the urine an odor like that of violets. They also act as stimulants on the general system, quickening the pulse, increasing the temperature of the surface, and causing a sensation of warmth at the stomach. They likewise act as anthelmintics. In large doses, they act upon the bowels, or, if this effect is not produced, they are apt to cause loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, griping, strangury, or bloody urine. They have been used in gonorrhoea, gleet, chronic affections of the kidneys and bladder, leucorrhoea, chronic affections of the mucous membrane of the air passages, chronic rheumatism, hemorrhoids, intestinal ulcerations, tympanites, amenorrhoea, chronic mucous diarrhoea, etc. Externally, they are detergents and digestives, and have sometimes been applied to indolent and ill-conditioned ulcers; also as rubefacients and stimulants. Their peculiar influence upon the body is chiefly owing to their essential oil. They also enter into various plasters and ointments, especially the white turpentine. An adhesive and strengthening plaster may be made as follows: Take of caoutchouc, reduced to fine shreds, 5 pounds, steep it in hot water to soften, then remove from the water, dry as quickly as possible, place in a vessel, and cover with oil of turpentine, which must be increased in quantity as the caoutchouc absorbs it. When the gum is sufficiently dissolved, press it through a fine sieve, and add to it the following mixtures: (1) White turpentine, melted and dissolved in a sufficient quantity of oil of turpentine to make it thin enough to strain; (2) capsicum, 4 ounces, heated in a quart of oil of turpentine, which must be filtered and gradually added and ground with a pound of litharge, and to which balsam of Peru, 6 ounces, is to be added. This plaster may be spread on paper, linen, or leather. The dose of the turpentines is from 10 to 60 grains, in the form of pill, emulsion, or electuary. They may be made into pills, when too soft, by the addition of powdered liquorice root, magnesia, etc. An emulsion may be made by rubbing them with yolk of egg, or mucilage of gum Arabic, sugar, and some aromatic water; sugar and honey mixed with them form an electuary (see also Oleum Terebinthinae).
Related Products.—ANIMÉ, or Gum animé. There are two substances of this name, one derived from India, and known as East Indian animé, which does not enter our commerce, and one from South America, known as South American animé. The former is waxy in luster, friable, of a reddish or yellowish color, and has somewhat the odor of fennel. It is employed in Ceylon to check the alcoholic fermentation in jaggery, a spirituous beverage. It is thought to be derived from Vateria Indica. The South American kind forms irregular pieces of a lemon to a reddish-brown hue, translucent, covered with a whitish powder, friable, and pulverizable, and softens when masticated. It has an odor suggestive of olibanum. It consists of essential oil and two resinous bodies, one soluble and the other insoluble in cold alcohol. Claimed to be the product of Hymenaea Courbaril, Linné, a leguminous plant, but is probably derived from a Burseracea.
CARUBA DI GUIDEN.—Gall-like excrescences, the result of stings of an hemiptera, found upon species of Pistacia, notably the Pistacia Terebinthus. They are reputed useful in asthma and chronic bronchitis, being pulverized and burned in a vessel, or smoked in a pipe, so that the terebinthinous fumes may be inhaled.
