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Juniperus communis Linn (Fam. Cupressaceae) |
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 English Name |
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Juniper Berry, Common Juniper |
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Latin Name |
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Juniperus communis Linn (Fam. Cupressaceae) |
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Hindi Name |
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Sanskrit Name |
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History |
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Although these valuable berries are produced from a native shrub, the berries of commerce are chiefly collected from plants cultivated in Hungary. The oil distilled on the Continent, principally in Hungary, is chiefly from freshly-picked berries. It has, hitherto, not been possible to produce the oil competitively with Southern Europe because of the relative cheapness of labour and the vast tracts of land over which the trees grow wild. But the rise in the price of foreign oil of Juniper berries since the outbreak of war has directed attention to the possible extended production of the oil either in Great Britain or her northern colonies. Sunny slopes are likely to be the best places to cultivate the shrub for the berries. The yield of oil, however, varies considerably in different years.
There is a wide difference in the chemical and physical characters of the oil distilled on the Continent from fresh and that in England from imported berries, which in transit to this country have become partially dried.
Commercial oil of Juniper is obtained chiefly from the ripe fruit and is stated to be in all essential qualities superior to the oil of Juniper from the full-grown, unripe, green berries used medicinally, which occurs as a colourless or pale greenish-yellow, limpid liquid, possessing a peculiar terebinthic odour when fresh, and a balsamic, burning, somewhat bitter taste.
Juniper berries take two or three years to ripen, so that blue and green berries occur on the same plant. Only the blue, ripe berries are here picked. When collected in baskets or sacks, they are laid out on shelves to dry a little, during which process they lose some of the blue bloom and develop the blackish colour seen in commerce.
There is a considerable demand on the Continent for an aqueous extract of the berries called Roob, or Rob of Juniper, and the distilled oil is in this case a by-product, the berries being first crushed and macerated with water and then distilled with water and the residue in the still evaporated to a soft consistence. Much of the oil met with in commerce is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of gin and similar products.
In Sweden a beer is made that is regarded as a healthy drink. In hot countries the tree yields by incision a gum or varnish. |
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Habitat |
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It consists of dried fruit of Juniperus communis Linn (Fam. Cupressaceae); a dense, more or less procumbent shrub, rarely a small tree, found in the Himalayas from Kumaon westwards at an altitude of 1500-4250 m.
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Morphology
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a) Macroscopic
Fruit sub-spherical, berry like, purplish-black, occasionally showing a 'bloom', about 0.5-1.0 cm in dia., apex shows triradiate mark and.depression indicating the suture of three fleshy-bracts; at the base are six, small, pointed, bracts arranged in 2 whorls, but occasionally 3 or 4 whorls present; three hard, triangular seeds are embedded in the fleshy mesocarp, each with a woody testa bearing large partly sunk oily glands; odour terebinthine and taste bitter.
b) Microscopic
Outer layer of fruit shows 3-4, large, cubic or tabular cells having thick, brown porous walls externally covered by single layered, colourless cuticle; sarcocarp consists of large, elliptical, thin-walled, loosely coherent cells, containing drops of essential oil and prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate; oval to elongated, elliptical, triangular or irregular shaped cells abundant in this region; seed coat shows 2 or 3 layers of tabular, thin-walled cells covered externally by a thin cuticle and followed internally by a wide zone of thick-walled polygonal sclerenchymatous cells; endosperm and embryo not distinct.
Powder - Brown; shows oval to elongated, elliptical and irregular shaped, thick-walled stone cells; rectangular to hexagonal, straight, thick walled epidermal cells in surface view; prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate and oil globules.
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Principal Constituents Pharmacology
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The principal constituent is the volatile oil, with resin, sugar, gum, water, lignin, wax and salines. The oil is most abundant just before the perfect ripeness and darkening of the fruit, when it changes to resin. The quantity varies from 2.34 to 0.31 per cent Juniper Camphor is also present, its melting-point being 1.65 to 1.66 degrees C.
Adulteration by oil of Turpentine can be recognized by the lowering of the specific gravity.
The tar is soluble in Turpentine oil, but not in 95 per cent acetic acid.
Junol is the trade name of a hydroalcoholic extract. |
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Toxicology
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Indications
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Oil of Juniper is given as a diuretic, stomachic, and carminative in indigestion, flatulence, and diseases of the kidney and bladder. The oil mixed with lard is also used in veterinary practice as an application to exposed wounds and prevents irritation from flies.
Spirit of Juniper has properties resembling Oil of Turpentine: it is employed as a stimulating diuretic in cardiac and hepatic dropsy.
The fruit is readily eaten by most animals, especially sheep, and is said to prevent and cure dropsy in the latter.
The chief use of Juniper is as an adjuvant to diuretics in dropsy depending on heart, liver or kidney disease. It imparts a violet odour to the urine, and large doses may cause irritation to the passages. An infusion of 1 oz. to 1 pint of boiling water may be taken in the course of twenty-four hours.
In France the berries have been used in chest complaints and in leucorrhoea, blenorrhoea, scrofula, etc. They are nut given in substance.
The oil is a local stimulant. |
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Clinical Test
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Product Related to
Juniper Berry, Common Juniper
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Aroma Herbal Hair Vitalizer
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$ 8
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