薄荷属植物の化学的研究(第3報) : 薄荷植物の臭気成分について(そのＩ)

Japanese mint (M. arvensis. L.) is the most excellent species of mentha, which contains 80-90% of l-menthol in the essential oil, but it is a weak point that it has a special bad odor. In recent years, the new excellent superior variety of mentha, named "San-Bi", has been discovered in Okayama Prefecture, and bred at the Okayama Agricultural Experiment Station. It has been cultivated in our country, as the mentha has the highest yield of menthol. However, " San-Bi" has taken people's attention to the fact that it has a proper disagreable odor.
One of the writers, Nagasawa, has been studied the object of peppermint for many years, especially, the aroma and taste of the Japanese menthol crystals, and reported the carbonyl compounds in order to detect the odorous components and bitter substances in the dementholized oils.
The authors have commenced the researches, in view of the fact that the low-boiling and volatile substances were dissolved in the distilled water produced by steam distillation. We have confirmed that the distilled water of "San-Bi" has a strong ammoniacal and fishy odor, which should be related to amines.
The object of this paper is to describe the nitrogen compounds dissolved in the distilled water of "San-Bi" and at the same time to report the sulfur compounds, which exist in the first gas generated by the steam distillation.