Oil of Jasmine.
Oil of Jasmine.—This oil is obtained from the flowers of the common white jasmine (Jasminum grandiflorum L.). Alternate layers of the fresh flowers, and of cotton saturated with the oil of ben or other fixed oil, are exposed in a covered vessel to the warmth of the sun, the flowers being renewed until the oil becomes impregnated, when it is separated from the cotton by pressure. This method is necessary, as the flowers do not yield their aroma by distillation. According to Gildemeister and Hoffmann, jasmine oil contains 65 per cent. of benzyl acetate, and in addition linalyl acetate, benzyl alcohol, and linalool. The oil is used only as a perfume. W. H. Hall records (M. S. Rep., Jan., 1861) the case of a child poisoned by the fruit of a jasmine, probably the common white species. The symptoms were coma, widely dilated pupil, and snoring respiration, with a cold pale surface, and slow and feeble pulse, followed by violent convulsions, with rigidity of the muscles about the head and throat.
