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The leaves of Coleus aromaticus Bentham were used in the East Indian archipelago, mainly in cases of aphthous stomatitis. For this purpose the Dutch Pharmacopoeia Ed. v introduced the Species antiaphthosae with Coleus leaves as an active component, because of their antiseptic qualities. Older research ascribed this activity to carvacrol and perhaps thymol. However, in more recent research in India eugenol and methyleugenol were also found to occur in this oil. Our investigations on original leaves from Java by GC-MS showed the absence of eugenol and methyleugenol, which leads us to the conclusion that on Java another chemotype occurs.

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T h e results of crossing experiments between a dihydrocarvone type of M e n t h a s u a v e o l e~z s (M e n t h a s u a v e o l e n s 12) and piperitone oxide types of resp. M e n t h a l o n g i f o l i a (M. l o n g i f o l i a 3) and M e n t h a szcaveolens (M. s u a v e O 1 e n s 6) and of two backcrossing experiments are given. Morphol~gicall~ the hybrids stood midway between the parent plants. Chemical analysis showed that in al1 cases the formation of dihydrocarvone was dominant over the formation of piperitone oxide and that M. 1 O n g i f 01 i a 3 and M. s u a v e o 1 e n s 6 are recessive for the same gene. Starting from a compound like diosphenolene, with an oxygen function both ut C-2 and ut C-3, and which is present when the gene c is homozygously present, substitution of the gene c by the dominant C involves reduction of the oxygen ut C-3 leading t o C-2 oxvgen compounds like carvone. In ccaa types substitution of the gene a by the dominant gene A will involve the reduction of the oxygen ut C-2 leading to C-3 oxygen compounds like piperitenone. The gene C is supposed to he epistatic over A. This explanation seems more likely than the one previously given by MURRAY (1960b) ut which the dominant gene C is held responsible for the oxydation o f a monoterpene hydrocarbon (limonene) ut C-2 leading t o carvone etc. and its recessive allele is responsible for the oxydatio~z ut C-3 leading to piperitenone etc. whereas the dominant gene A involves the reduction of the double bond 1,2 of piperitenone (-t pulegone) and piperitone (+ menthone). A scheme is discussed in which a dominant gene P is held responsible for the saturation of the double bond 4,8 (MURRAY et al., 1971) and in which a hypothetical, dominant gene is responsible for the saturation o f the double bond 1,2 of piperitenone and of the double bond 1,6 of carvone. In a previous publication (H E N D R I K S and V A N OS, 1972) the chernical analysis of a piperitone oxide type of Mentha longifolia (L.

No abstract