_Baccæ Galbuli Juniperi_; _Juniper Berries_; F. _Baies de Genièvre_; G.
_Wacholderbeeren_, _Kaddigbeeren_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Juniperis communis_ L., a diœcious evergreen,
occurring in Europe from the Mediterranean to the Arctic regions,
throughout Russian Asia as far as Sachalin, and in the north-western
Himalaya, where it is ascending in Kashmir at 5400 feet, in Lahoul to
12,500, on the upper Biās and in Gurhwal to 14,000 feet. It abounds
in the islands of Newfoundland, Saint Pierre, and Miquelon, and is
also found in Continental North America. Dispersed over this vast area
the Common Juniper presents several varieties. In England and in the
greater part of Europe it forms a bushy shrub from 2 to 6 feet high,
but in the interior of Norway and Sweden it becomes a small forest tree
of 30 to 36 feet, often attaining an age of hundreds of years.[2319] In
high mountain regions of temperate Europe and in Arctic countries it
assumes a decumbent habit (_Juniperus nana_ Willd.), rising only a few
inches above the soil.
=History=—The fruits of Juniper, though by no means exclusively those
of _J. communis_, were commonly used in medicine by the Greek and Roman
as well as by the Arabian physicians; they had a place among the drugs
of the Welsh “physicians of Myddvai” (see Appendix), and are mentioned
in some of the earliest printed herbals. The oil was distilled by
Schnellenberg[2320] as early as 1546.
Popular uses were formerly assigned in various parts of Europe to
Juniper berries. They were employed as a spice to food;[2321] and a
spirit, of which wormwood was an ingredient, was obtained from them by
fermentation and distillation. The spirit called in French _Genièvre_
became known in English as _Geneva_, a name subsequently contracted
into _Gin_.[2322]
[2319] Schübeler, _Culturpflanzen Norwegens_, Christiania, 1873-1875.
140, with fig.
[2320] _Artsneybuch_, Königsberg, 1556. 35.
[2321] Valmont de Bomare, _Dict. d’Hist. nat._ ii. (1775) 45.
[2322] The gin distilled in Holland is flavoured with Juniper berries,
yet, as we are told, but very slightly, only 2 lb. being used to 100
gallons.
=Description=—The flowers form minute axillary catkins; those of the
female plant consist of 3 to 5 whorls of imbricated bracts. Of these
the uppermost three soon become fleshy and scale-like, and alternate
with three upright ovules having an open pore at the apex. After the
flowers have faded these three fleshy bracts grow together to form a
berry-like fruit termed a _galbulus_, which encloses three seeds. The
three points and sutures of the fruit-scales are conspicuous in the
upper part of the young fruit; but after maturity the sutures alone
are visible, forming a depressed mark at its summit. A small point,
surrounded by two or three trios of minute bracts, indicates the base
of the fruit.
This fruit or pseudo-berry remains ovate and green during its first
year, and it is not until the second autumn that it becomes ripe. It is
then spherical, ³/₁₀ to ⁴/₁₀ of an inch in diameter, of a deep purplish
colour, with a blue-grey bloom. Its internal structure may be thus
described:—beneath the thin epicarp there is a loose yellowish-brown
sarcocarp, enclosing large cavities, the oil-ducts; the three hard
seeds lying close together, triangular and sharp-edged at the top, are
attached to the sarcocarp at their outer sides, and only as far as
the lower half. The upper half, which is free, is covered by a thin
membrane. In the longitudinal furrows of the hard testa towards the
lower half of the seed are small prominent sacs growing out into the
sarcocarp. Each seed bears on its inner side 1 or 2, and on its convex
outer surface 4 to 8 of these sacs, which in old fruits contain the
resinified oil in an amorphous colourless state.
Juniper berries when crushed have an aromatic odour, and a spicy,
sweetish, terebinthinous taste.
=Microscopic Structure=—The outer layer of the fruit consists of a
colourless transparent cuticle, which covers a few rows of large cubic
or tabular cells having thick, brown, porous walls. These cells contain
a dark granular substance and masses of resin. The sarcocarp, which
in the ripe state consists of large, elliptic, thin-walled, loosely
coherent cells, contains chlorophyll, drops of essential oil, and a
crystalline substance soluble in alcohol,—no doubt a stearoptene.
Before maturity it likewise contains starch granules and large
oil-cells. This tissue is traversed by very small vascular bundles
containing annulated and dotted vessels.
=Chemical Composition=—The most important constituent of juniper
berries is the volatile oil, obtainable to the extent of 0·4 to 1·2 per
cent. The latter amount is obtained from Hungarian, 0·7 per cent. from
German fruits.[2323] It is a mixture of levogyre oils, the one of which
having the composition C₁₀H₁₆ boils at 155° C.; the prevailing portion
of the oil, boiling at about 200°, consists of hydrocarbons, which
are polymeric with terpene, C₁₀H₁₆. The crude oil as distilled by us
deviated 3°·5 to the left in a column of 50 mm.
[2323] According to Messrs. Schimmel & Co. (see p. 306, note 2.)
By passing nitrosyl chloride gas, NOCl, into it, Tilden (1877)
obtained from the portion boiling below 160° the crystallized compound
C₁₀H₁₆(NOCl), which is yielded by all the terpenes.
Another important constituent of juniper berries is the glucose, of
which Trommsdorff (1822) obtained 33 per cent., while Donath (1873)
found 41·9, and Ritthausen (1877) not more than 16 per cent. in the
berries deprived of water. Of albuminoid substances about 5 per cent.
are present, of inorganic matters 3 to 4 per cent. The fruit, moreover,
contains also according to Donath small amounts of formic, acetic, and
malic acids, besides resin.
=Collection and Commerce=—Juniper berries are largely collected in
Savoy, and in the departments of the Doubs and Jura in France, whence
they find their way to the hands of the Geneva druggists. They are
also gathered in Austria, the South of France and Italy. In Hamburg
price-currents they are quoted as _German_ and _Italian_. The largest
supplies are apparently furnished by Hungaria.
=Uses=—The berries and the essential oil obtained from them are reputed
diuretic, yet are not often prescribed in English medicine.