SOLIDAGO.—SWEET-SCENTED GOLDENROD. History, and Chemical Composition

History, and Chemical Composition.—This plant is common to the United States, growing in dry, fertile woodlands and sunny hills, and flowering from July to October. There are many species of this genus growing throughout the country, and which differ from each other in their degree of astringency and fragrance. The leaves and tops are the parts used; they have an odor, when bruised, resembling anise and sassafras, and a slightly astringent, spicy, rather pleasant taste; they contain a volatile oil, which may be procured by distilling them with water; it is of a pale-yellowish color. The oil obtained from the flowers is said to differ from that yielded by the leaves. When properly dried, the leaves form an excellent substitute for tea, and are collected and used for this purpose, under the name of "Blue mountain tea," among the German population in central Pennsylvania. The leaves impart their virtues to alcohol or boiling water; but boiling injures their properties. From the whole plant of Solidago rugosa, Wm. P. Oberhauser (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1893, p. 122) obtained 0.996 per cent of volatile oil; the odor of the oil from the flowers and the leaves resembles that of origanum. The flowers of S. bicolor, also growing in Pennsylvania, contain volatile oil and 2.5 per cent of a bitter resin (Adam Conrath, ibid., 1873, p. 253). The flowering and fresh herb of S. canadensis yields 0.63 per cent of volatile oil, chiefly consisting of pinene, with borneol, bornyl-acetate, and cadinene (Gildemeister and Hoffmann, Die Ætherischen Oele, 1899).