21.1 Perkins: Drugs for the Treatment of Leprosy 11 
same may be said of the occurrence of free fatty acids in the 
distilled product. They were produced during distillation and 
have no relation to the free fatty acids in the crude products, 
as these were washed thoroughly with alkali before distillation. 
The iodine numbers of the esters and the rotatory powers of 
the fatty acids show clearly that the use of sulphuric acid as a 
catalyst is permissible, even on long boiling. Sulphuric acid has 
obvious economical advantages as compared with hydrochloric 
acid gas and reduces, by its hygroscopic action, the amount of 
free fatty acid in the crude esters. 
MUIR’S E. C. C. 0. 
The preparation and use of this mixture is described in Muir’s 
Handbook on Leprosy, page 43. It is composed of Hydnocarpus 
wightiana ethyl esters, 1 cubic centimeter; double distilled 
creosote, 1 cubic centimeter; camphor, 1 gram; olive oil, 2.5 
cubic centimeters. The committee has recently placed a group 
of patients under treatment with this drug. 
SODIUM GYNOCARDATE A 
This is the derivative of chaulmoogra oil used for subcuta- 
neous and intravenous injection since 1917 by Leonard Rogers.” 
Recently he has called it sodium hydnocarpate,”* but as it is 
really a mixture containing a large amount of sodium chaul- 
moograte there seems to be no good reason for changing the 
name. The name “gynocardate”’ has always been applied to a 
similar mixture, while “hydnocarpate” applies to a definite 
chemical individual. To prepare this drug, chaulmoogra oil 
is saponified by boiling it in a steam kettle with about four 
parts of water, adding one-fifth part of caustic soda in small 
portions. The fatty acids, which solidify at about room tem- 
perature, are liberated by the addition of sulphuric acid, then 
dried, and dissolved in alcohol. The solution is cooled in a 
refrigerator, which causes ‘the less-soluble acids, particularly 
chaulmoogric, to crystallize out. 
Several fractions are crystallized out, and the least soluble 
is mixed with sufficient of the intermediate fractions to give 
a product melting at 48° C. This, after neutralization with 
caustic soda, is a duplication of Rogers’s preparation, as closely 
as can be ascertained. 
* Rogers, L., Ind. Journ. Med. Res. 5 (1917) 277. 
* Rogers, L., Ind. Med. Gaz. 54 (1919) 165. 
