CHAPTER XVI 

 STERILIZATION AND DISINFECTION IN THE PHARMACY 



It is only within very recent years that sterilization in the pharmacy 

 has received any serious attention. Certain pharmacopeias, notably those 

 of Austria and Belgium, give specific directions regarding the sterilization 

 of certain medicamenta, particularly those intended for hypodermic use. 

 The German, English, Italian, Swiss and other pharmacopeias give direc- 

 tions regarding certain sterilizing processes which may be applied to a few 

 articles. Fischer, Stich, Deniges, Mario, Schoofs arid other European 

 investigators have given the subject much attention and have perfected 

 many of the details of proce'dure. 



Some of the non-official methods of sterilization are of very doubtful 

 practicability. Particularly the methods recommended for the steriliza- 

 tion of pharmaceutical solutions by means of the ultra-violet rays and by 

 means of chemical disinfectants. Lesure sums up the use of the ultra- 

 violet rays as follows : " A series of experiments shows that, at present, the 

 ultra-violet rays can scarcely be regarded as a practical means of sterilizing 

 pharmaceutical solutions, such as hypodermic injections. It is not yet 

 possible to sterilize liquids in small closed glass vessels, since the glass 

 absorbs the rays of shortest wave length, which are precisely those of most 

 active sterilizing power. Possibly on a large scale solutions could be 

 sterilized in bulk and then filled, in vacua, into sterilized small receivers. 

 The rays might be useful for substances which are decomposed by treat- 

 ment in the autoclave. Some substances are, however, so readily de- 

 composed by ultra-violet rays, that their solutions can never be sterilized 

 therewith. Such are solutions of quinine salts, of mercuric iodide, of 

 atoxyl, of eserine, of apomorphine and some glucosides, as for example 

 gentiopicrin. Opaque solutions and suspensions of solids cannot be thus 

 sterilized. The permeability of the different solutions to the rays also 

 varies very greatly. Apart from the question of decomposition, it is found 

 that, in the case of gentiopicrin, completely sterile solutions were not ob- 

 tained even after an exposure of half an hour; on the other hand ancubin 

 solutions were completely sterilized in thirty seconds." The decomposi- 

 tion changes due to the ultra-violet rays are not clearly understood. The 

 indications are that there are no very marked chemical changes in such 

 substances as cocaine and pilocarpin hydrochloride after three hours' 

 exposure. Arbutin shows a change in a few minutes. There is so much 



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