Asarone Containing Botanicals

Asarone Containing Botanicals by Horace Finnemore The Oil o Asarum Europaeum, L. 

Eykman (Ber. 1889, 22, 3172) concluded from an optical examination of a mixture of asarone and safrole that the former is a propenyl and not an allyl derivative, and the constitution of asarone was finally determined by Gattermann and Eggers (Ber. 1899, 32, 289) by synthesizing asarylic aldehyde (ii) from 1 2 4-trimethoxybenzene and then heating this aldehyde with propionic anhydride and sodium propionate, when asarone (iii) was obtained in a yield of 60 per cent. Asarone melts at 62-63° and boils at 296°, specific gravity at 18°, 1.165. 

---

Acorus calamus (calamus root, sweet flag, rat root, sweet sedge, flag root, sweet calomel, sweet myrtle, sweet cane, sweet rush, beewort, muskrat root, pine root) contains several active constituents called asar-ones. The basic structure is 2,4,5-trimethoxy-l-propenyl-benzene, which is related to the hallucinogen 3,4-methylenedioxyphenylisopropylamine (MDA). The amounts of the asarones in calamus rhizomes vary considerably with the botanical variety. For example, there are high concentrations in triploid calamus from Eastern Europe but none detectable in the diploid North American variety. 

---