124 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
At Maiva and Kerepuna in New Guinea; Edelfelt. A tall tree, with redish 
wood, according to the collector’s notes. Specimens obtained through Th. Gulliver 
Esq. I should have referred the Papuan species to P. Indicus, had it not been for 
the marked difference in the fruit, the stipes of which is still shorter than in 
P. marsupium. Pipe seeds of the Papuan plant were not available for comparison 
Miquel and Baker describe the fruit of P. Indicus silky; Eurz found it glabrous 
already m a young state. P. macrocarpus is evidently also closely akin to 
P. iapuanus; but the leaflets are less broad and stiller, nor can the calyces be 
called rusty- velvety. But like P. Indicus and P. macrocarpus also the Papuan tree 
is sure to yield Kino, perhaps as good as that of P. marsupium and P. erinaceus • 
nor can there be doubt, that P. Papuanus will furnish dye-wood somewhat similar 
to that of P. santalinus ; thus two new articles of export are likely to be supplied 
by the Papuan tree, now for the first time brought under notice. The specimens 
from Kerepuna are only flower-bearing, those from Maiva only fruit-bearing • but 
I regard them as belonging to one species. 
IPECACUANHA WINE. 
A Paper read by C. K, Blackett at a Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of 
Australasia. J 
The new process for the preparation of ipecacuanha wine in the British 
larmacopoDia has evoked a considerable amount of discussion and some dif- 
ference of opinion. 
It may be of interest for us to examine this new method, and a few practical 
observations may not be unacceptable. As ipecacuanha is a valuable medicine 
and much prescribed, it is important that we should have all its preparations in 
the most efficient state. 
The active principle of ipecacuanha root— Cephaelis ipecacuanha belonging to 
the natural order Kubiaceas, the same family which gives us the quinine barks 
—is the alkaloid emetina, and occurs in the root in combination with ipecacuanhic 
acid. It also forms salts with other acids. “The nitrate is peculiarly insoluble 
in water, according to Lefort. 
Medicinal wines are really tinctures, but contain less alcohol. Sherry wine 
which is ordered in the B. Ph., contains from 17 to 20 per cent, of rectified spirit! 
It also contains bitartrate of potash and tannin. It has long been known that free acid 
in wmes is an advantage in the preparation of ipecacuanha wine, as the ipecacuanate 
ot emetina is precipitated m long kept wine if no free acid is present, and it suggests 
itself that the best dry, high-priced sherries are really not so suitable for this pre- 
paration as an acid and common wine. Procter says that “ the addition of three 
or four grains of tartaric acid per ounce is an advantage in preventing this 
deposit. Tartaric acid is not exempt from decomposition when kept in solution 
m water, and it is not unlikely that acetic or hydrochloric acid would be more 
a vantageous. In the United States Pharmacopoeia tartaric acid is used in 
the preparation of extract of aconite for the same reason, and its application 
was suggested by Duquesnel. The American Pharmacopoeia orders the vinum to 
to be prepared from the fluid extract, which is prepared by first moistening the 
powdered ipecacuanha with alcohol, and it is then packed firmly in a percolator, 
and then exhausted with more alcohol ; the spirit is distilled off until the residue 
measures a definite quantity (50 c.c.), 100 c.c. of water is added, and it is eva- 
porated to 75 c.c., cooled and filtered. The precipitate is washed until tasteless, 
and again evaporated to 50 c.c., cooled, and alcohol added to make 100 c.c., so 
that the liquor represents its own weight of ipecacuanha root. 
