CHAPTER V 

 POWDERING VEGETABLE DRUGS 



As a rule it is necessary to reduce vegetable drugs to powders for 

 purposes of extraction and for internal administration. Formerly it 

 was quite the rule for the retail pharmacist to grind his own drugs 

 but at the present time this work is generally done for him by the 

 wholesale dealers in drugs. Thus the retailer is quite dependent 

 upon the wholesaler for the quality and purity of this class of drugs. 

 The fact that powdered drugs and spices are frequently sold at a 

 lower figure than the whole or crude article has often raised comment. 

 Certain inferior spices are commercially known as "grinding spices/' 

 because their inferiority (defective, small, shrivelled, worm eaten, dis- 

 colored, moldy, undeveloped, etc.) is such that it would be difficult 

 if not wholly impossible to market them in the whole state. Reducing 

 them to a powder, or grinding them, covers these defects. Again, trim- 

 mings, broken bits, sweepings, screenings, tailings, winno wings, etc., 

 are frequently added to the drug or spice, in the process of grinding or 

 powdering. Adulterants are sometimes added to the milling article. 

 These are some of the conditions which make it possible for the- 

 unscrupulous miller to sell a powdered article at a lower figure than 

 is asked for the crude article. 



1. Selection of Drugs for Powdering. Vegetable drugs to be pow- 

 dered should be of good quality, well garbled and free from dirt, dust, 

 lime, sand and other undesirable substances. In other words, the 

 quality and purity of powdered vegetable drugs should be equal to 

 that of the corresponding crude drugs. 



2. Preparing Drugs for Powdering. Before crude vegetable drugs 

 are powdered they are again dried to remove hygroscopic moisture; 

 that is, for the purpose of rendering the process of powdering easier, 

 as the tenaciousness of vegetable tissues increases with the amount 

 of moisture present. It should also be kept in mind that low tem- 

 peratures increase the brittleness of vegetable tissues. It might, 

 therefore, prove advantageous to powder the drugs during very cold 

 weather or in an artificially reduced temperature. 



Since uniformity of the strength of the percolate depends largely 

 upon the uniformity in the fineness of the powder, it is evident that 



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