Apiol, also known as liquid apiol or green oil of parsley is the extracted

oleoresin Oleoresins are semi-solid extracts composed of resin and essential or fatty oil, obtained by evaporation of the solvents used for their production. The oleoresin of conifers is known as crude turpentine or gum turpentine, which consists of oil o ...

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...

, rather than the distilled oil. Due to its similarity to the term

apiole Apiole is a phenylpropene, also known as apiol, parsley apiol, or parsley camphor. Its chemical name is 1-allyl-2,5-dimethoxy-3,4-methylenedioxybenzene. It is found in the essential oils of celery leaf and all parts of parsley. Heinrich Christoph ...

, care should be taken to avoid confusion. Apiol is an irritant and, in high doses, it can cause liver and kidney damage. Cases of death due to attempted abortion using apiol have been reported.

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

wrote about

as a herb to cause an

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

. Plants containing

were used by women in the Middle Ages to terminate pregnancies. Its use was widespread in the US, often as ergoapiol or apergol, until a highly toxic adulterated product containing apiol and

tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate Tricresyl phosphate (TCP), is a mixture of three isomeric organophosphate compounds most notably used as a flame retardant. Other uses include as a plasticizer in manufacturing for lacquers and varnishes and vinyl plastics and as an antiwear addit ...

(also famous as the adulterant added to

Jamaica ginger Jamaica ginger extract, known in the United States by the slang name Jake, was a late 19th-century patent medicine that provided a convenient way to obtain alcohol during the era of Prohibition in the United States, Prohibition, since it conta ...

) was introduced on the American market. Now that safer methods of abortion are available, apiol is almost forgotten.

References

Further reading