β Scribed by Cronheim, Georg
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Chemical and physical properties of ozonized olive oil have been investigated. Ozonized olive oil decomposes in the presence of water into medium length mono-and dibasic acids and aldehydes and hydrogen peroxide. Organic peroxidic compounds are formed as intermediates. It is suggested that the beneficial clinical results whi& have been obtained with ozonized olive oil are due to the germicidal properties of the peroxides and to specific actions of the final decomposition products.
HE PHARMACEUTICAL use of oxygen Treleasing substances dates back as far as 1818 when Thenard discovered hydrogen peroxide. The compounds employed since then were and still are almost exclusively inorganic or organic peroxides. Very little attention has been paid to ozonides many of which decompose with the release of nascent oxygen and can thus be used in the same manner as peroxides.
Although Schoenbein was the fist to observe in 1855 the addition of ozone to the ethylene linkage, it was Harries who from 1901-1916 studied in detail the formation and the physical and chemical properties of organic ozonides. In 1914 B o x (1) filed a patent application for ''a 'medicinal compound comprising the ozonide of the trigryceride of a hydroxylated fatty acid of the C,Hp, --203 series." This ricinoleic acid ozonide was supposed to be an "improved, efficient and emollient laxative" with germicidal actiQn upon pathogenic microorganisms in the intestines.
As a matter of curiosity mention should also be made of the book Exfierimmts w-th Oxygen on Disease, published in 1921 by James Todd (2). The author first deals in detail with the manufacture of ozonized olive and cod-liver oils. He then goes on to describe how he obtained ''miraculou~ cures" with oral doses of "from 100 to 300 drops
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