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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1928)
5 Salem's Peppermint Oil Refinery Will Aid in Duildinp Up a Gigantic Indiiitry THE OREGON STATESMAN FARMING 'AND INDUS TRIAL MAGAZINE SECTION (MOT BECOME OF THE CRUDE F! II G MERC That Is the Latest Reiterated Testimony of Oregon Agricul tural College Authority The College Ought by All Means to Have an Experimental Drug Garden, Which Would Not Cost Much to Provide; Neither Would It Be Expensive to Maintain (Every year the Slogan editor appeals for testimony from the Oregon- Agricultural . college, to publish in the annual Drug. Gar den .Slogan issue, .as to the pros pects for Oregon becoming a great drug garden state. In every in stance, the authorities of the col lege, have given positive testimony to the brilliant future of this state in thistfield. This year is no ex ception. E. T. Stuhr, writing from and for that institution, is conservative in his statements. compared with some of his pre decessors in furnishing the infor mation. He stresses the import ance of an experimental drug gar den at the college. This should by all means be provided. The initial costs would be low, as he shows. The maintenance costs would not be high. It is a wonder this prime need has not long ago been provided. Private enterprise in the Salem district, is doing a great deal. More will be done in the way of experimentation this year than ever before especially in the field of essential oils. Fol lowing Is the article of Mr. Stuhr: ) Interest in medicinal plants has commanded the attention of man til manv tan tiiriaa TfiA Aarlv superstitious materia medlca caused man to go - to unknown corners of the earth for products, which derived their value from the mysteryof their origin. Trade in drugs and spices is as ancient as commerce. Scientific tests have discarded hosts of valueless medi cinals; however, there is hardly a country that does not furnish some commercial medicinal sup ply. Crude drugs come to us from all corners of the earth. A large amount of the drugs used in the United States are imported from other countries. Thus the purees of our crude drugs are'very wide ly distributed, depending to a great extent on climatic condi tions. Some of the more common drug plants belonging to the tern f perate zone, such as digitalis, belladonna, ' are produced to a great extent in northern and cen , tral Europe. There is no coun try or inhabited island that does not produce some substance of medicinal value. England sup plies choice lavender and valeri an: France rare oils for perfumes; China the rhubarb and camphor of commerce. The Orient sup . plies a large majority of our drug plants, many of which have been introduced and are successfully cultivated in more or less local ized areas. In fact, the drug store keeps on shelves drugs from all parts of the globe. Oregon May Lead The greater portion of the pep permint oil produced was pro duced in Japan, but today the Tnited States Is recognized as a great porducer and the state of Oregon a leading specific region. This is not true of onlv the pep permint industry. The Pacific coast region is the source of the world's supply of cascara. Many plants are adaptable to the Oregon climatic conditions, and the native drug plant re sources of Oregon are certainly worthy of serious consideration. Oregon has an ideal climate WE CAN PRODUCE HERE -HUNDREDS E 1 LEADING PRODUCER E guarded by the ocean against heat and cold, and the fertility of the soil, one of the world's best. THERE IS NO REASON WHY OREGON' CAN NOT BECOME THE LEADING PRODUCER OF CRUDE DRUGL COMMERCE, with the possible exception4 of the hi?h cost of production, the primary factor being labor wages. For example, a few plants which may merit attention that thrive readily in Oregon are ginseng, botanically known as Panax quin quefolium. is a fleshy rooted herb aceous plant growing naturally throughout mountainous shady ravines and shady places. Ginseng will thrive best in soil suitable for garden vegetables. The best time for planting ginseng is in the spring as soon as the soil can be worked to advantage. The na tive habitat of ginseng is in the rather dense shaded areas: there fore the plants sfiould be protect ed from direct sunlight. Digitalis or foxglove, botanical ly known aa Digitalis purpurea, is a hardy perennial which grqws abundantly -throughout the state. The seeds should be sown in well drained garden soil as early as February. Both the first and sec ond year foliage is used in medi cine.. Hydrastis or Goldenseal, botan ically known as Hydrastis cana densis, is a perennial plant, native of open woodlands. Thrives best la fertile soil mulched with de caying forest leaves. The seeds may be sown in the latter sum mer or autumn. The Boil should be kept free of weeds, etc.. and the plants protected from frost. For Drug Garden In order to investigate the medi cinal plants in Oregon and to spread information on the sub ject to those who may wish to un dertake the cultivation of such plants for commercial purposes, it is desirable to establish an ex perimental drug garden in connec tion -with the school of pharmacy, Oregon State Agricultural college, Corvallis, Oregon. The establish ment of such a drug garden would involve the following: The foremost duty of the garden is to investigate the cultivation of medicinal plants in the Btate and to spread Information on the sub ject to those who want to under take the cultivation of medicinal plants for commercial purposes. The garden is also used as a means of instruction in the culti vation of medicinal plants in the school of pharmacy. It J Imperative The importance of this work has been greatly emphasized in re cent years by our dependence up on European countries for crude drugs and by the rapid disappear ance of our native wild medicinal plants, as in the case of cascara. At present, it is Impossible to give directions, for the successful cul tivation of even some of our native medicinal plants whlcb grow wild about us without any forethought or care. Hence the experimental cultivation of medicinal plants is imperative for the future sup plies of crude drugs. A location for an ideal drug plot should consist of a wide var iety of soil and moisture condi tions. For "the successful eultl- j vation of drag plants it is neces- j sary to have open cultivated land, both dry and swampy in nature. ' A large number of species require the natural shade coaditions of wooded land. All of those fac tors should -be considered in the selection of the location for a gar den. Wild I'lanU Disappearing For many years Oregon has supplied the markets with a num ber of crude drugs obtained from wild plants by drug collectors. The wild plants are fast disap pearing, and. with few exceptions no systematic attempts have been made to replace our native wild supply of medicinal plants. The condition of the drug market has become such, that the average American pharmacist often does not recognize a drug when he has an opportunity to see it. It should be one of the garden's first du ties to give the phaimary student (our future pharmacists) an op portunity to- become acquainted with the best speciments of this class of medicinal merchandise. The Requirements In order to work the ground al lotted to the medicinal plant par den the following budget has been prepared: The services of a full time gar dener, equipped with a horse and the necessary farm implements will be required to take care of the labor necessary to maintain the garden. Wild growing medi cinal plants will be transplanted to the garden for study ar.d in vestigation. Travel expenses for the collector to gather and record the native medicinal plants and to make a survey of the stato is needed for cur informtion. and for the information of the public who may be interested. A photographic record should be kept of the progress of the gar den and a record of the medicinal wild growing, plants throughout the state. This item should be in cluded under travel expense and photographic supplies. Fertilizer, seeda, plants, fenc ing, small tool house, etc., are self-explanatory. Many of the plants that should be investigated at the present time are volatile oil yielding plants, such as the mints. A steam still will be required to extract the oil. and the construction of a still either at the garden or other con venient place should be contem plated. In order o cure our crops of drugs properly a drying house will have to be constructed. Below Is a synopsis of the pro posed budget for a medicinal plant garden : Gardner's salary $7 5ft Horse and feed ?50 Farm machinery 100 Fertilizer SO Seeds, plants, etc 75 Fencing 50 Travel expenses for col lector 150 Photographic supplies . . 100 Steam still 300 Tool House 50 Drying House 75 Green House Lath House. Mothers week end. annual event at Oregon Agricultural col lege, will begin Friday. May 11. KOAC, college radio, will broad cast a special program that eve ning from 7 to 7:30. Musical se lections and readings by students will be included, and several mothers on the campus at that time will take part. "Mothers' day at O. A. C." a talk by Dr. Kate W. Jameson, dean of wom en, will be given the preceding evening, Thursday. May 10, at 7:30 describing the annual event and outlining the week-end program. SALEM IS TO HAVE A PEPPERMINT DIL REFINERY BY HARV "All the Departments and Machinery Will Be Assembled Un ! der One Roof This Plant Will Have Sufficient Capacity I to Handle All the Peppermint Oil Produced in Oregon It Will Refine Every Other Variety of Essential Oils and Will Be a Great Asset to This District I As we announced in the regular J news columns of The Statesman of j Tuesday last. Salem is to have a full fledged peppermint oil refin ery in operation by the time of the coming mint harvest next sum mer. As was stated in the artivle heinj rererred to. i. O.- Herroid last year commenced the assem bling of a peppermint oil refinery in Salem. He has had the chemical department in one place, the test ing apparatus in another, and the refining machinery in still anoth er place. These are all to be assembled under one roof. Thus Salem is to have in regular operation a fully organized peppermint oil refinery. The place has not yet been se lected. Mr. Herroid has several lo cations under consideration, fun Handle It All The eapity of the refinery will be 400 pounds a day. This will be I sufficient to handle the whole crop I of this section. Last year, the Wil- lamette valley and the mint dis I tricts on the Washington side of 1 the Columbia river, opposite the Oregon shore, produced about ! 125.000 pounds of peppermint oil , from about 3500 acres of land, j The major part of it was produced I in the Salem district. The value of j the crop , was around half a mil j lion dollars. Without running over time, in I the 312 working days of the year. the reader will see that the Her- rold peppermint oil refinery will be able to handle all the crop of the two states and easily take caro of all within the Salem trad ing area. Grant W. Shaffner is the chem ist for the refining of peppermint oil for Mr. Herrold. He has so far made 156 tests on oil produced last year, and a number of lots held over from former years. These tests have had to pass muster with the chemists for the eastern buyers of peppermint oil. and there has not been a single criticism. This shows that the work here has been high class. It is not necessary to tell the j producers of peppermint oil in this j district that this is very impor- tant. The refinery here will stan dardize Oregon oil of peppermint. I The sellers will know what they I are sending, and the buyers from j samples will know just what they are getting. The higher values will ; be apparent. The stream of money ! coming this way for this product will be larger than it could be for the crude oil exclusively, sent by hit-and-miss methods. Other Essential Oils The refinery will not be confined in its operation t o peppermint oil. Its equipment for refining peppermint oil will allow the refining ot any kind of essen tial oil. Eventually, there will be 50 to 60 kinds of essential oil plants grown on a commercial scale in the Salem district, some of them yielding higher priced products than oil of peppermint. Some very much higher priced. Experiments have been and are being made in the growing of a number of these plants. This will go on. No doubt the Oregon Agri cultural college at Corvallis will ere long have an experimental crude drug garden; should have OF CRUDE DRUG PLANTS FULL FLEDGED EST one now. should have had one lor$g ago. Great Thing For District This industry is bound to be cone one of the biggest assets of this section; one of the most pow erful helps in contributing to the upbuilding and well being of Sa lem The natural conditions are he ret Just as we can produce here a higher, quality peppermint oil and 'more of it to the acre than can ie produced elsewhere in this counjtry, we can make the same shoeing with the production of several ether essential oil plants the products of which are found in thje commercial avenues of this country and the world generally. In one or two fields, the advan tage n favor of the Salem district is five to one. Think of it! This means millions and millions of dol lars annually in due course of time for the Salem district. This indus try wll go on forever. It will be based Hon annual crops from the land; our sunshine and soil and showers converted into an unend ing stream of dollars during all the years of the future. j Refinery Great Help The peppermint oil refinery will prove a great help in many ways. Mr. Hcrrold has already cleaned up a l&t of rusty, dirty and mud dy oil ind rendered it marketable, and marketed it. This will go on constantly; converting articles ot little qr no value into commodi ties that will bring good money tot this city and section. Also there are markes in cer tain lines for double distilled and triple distilled oils, and some oC higher Tractions; for special uses. These can now be supplied from Salem in every test that is applied to prove the quality of peppermint oil, the product of the Salem dis trict has made a high mark; in many away above the requirements according to the tables of the trade; according to the govern ment regulations. This is true of the refractive index, the optical rotations; the reaction on litmus paper, the solubility. All tests show that we produce a superior grade of peppermint oil. And im the final test, the flavor and taste, our prodact shows superior qual ities. The fact is now demonstrat ed beyond question that we cam produce the best peppermint oil that can be turned out in this country, and we can get more of it to the acre than is possible lM any other section. Salem district peppermint oil Is going to be the standard for the United States. The refinery here Is gotng to go a long way in bring ing, about this most desirable re sult. KOAC will observe national music week May ( to i:i with tw half-hour programs by the Mar guerite MacManua string quartet and other special music. Ths quartet is directed by Mrs. Ma Manus, head of strcnged instru ment instruction for the Oregon Agricultural college. The pro grams are at 7:30 Monday, May 7 and Wednesday, May 9. Other musical selectlona are broadcast each evening from 6:30 to 7 o'clock from KOAC.