THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
125 
Before preparing the wine it is as well to carefully examine the root to 
see if it is genuine Cephaslis ipecacuanha. The meditullium of Carthegena root is 
distinctly radiated, of larger size and less annulated, smooth, and non-annulated 
in the larger size. The amount of emetina is about 1 per cent, in good ordi- 
nary root. Ipecacuanhic acid, with which it is combined, is a glucoside allied 
to kinic and coffetannic acids. There are several species of ipecacuanha— the 
black psychotris emetica, smooth, large, and striated, a native of New Grenada, 
small striated from Bichardsonia scabra. These are all very inferior, and may be 
easily distinguished by their uon-annulated appearance. 
The method of the B.P. for the preparation of the wine is that which 
was proposed by Carteighe some years ago. It is a question whether a weak 
tincture would not be better than the wine. For if the wine is made in the 
old way, and with strong sherry containing much tannin, the deposit will go 
as long as any alkaloid remains ; and it will be found that old long-made 
wine will give very poor indications of the presence of emetina on the appli- 
cation of the usual tests. The Pharmacopoeia orders the root to be coarsely 
powdered. It is not necessary to powder the central meditullium, as it contains 
little or no emetina. The powder must be well macerated with the acetic acj.d> 
and then tightly packed in a cylindrical percolator of the proper proportions to 
the quantity operated on. The last fluid which comes through is almost colour- 
less and tasteless, and gives no reactions for emetina. The evaporation over the 
water bath should take place in a thin porcelain dish, and is ordered to be 
carried to dryness. This takes some time, but it is doubtful whether it is 
necessary to evaporate to a dry extract. The object, of course, is to get rid 
of as much of the free acetic acid as possible, the compilers of the Pharma- 
copoeia taking, doubtless, into consideration the fact that ipecacuanha wine is 
frequently prescribed with carbonate of ammonia, soda, &c. But I think that 
if the evaporation is continued until no odour of acetic acid is perceptible it 
would be sufficient, and the small amount of free acid remaining would be little 
likely to cause any appreciable trouble in dispensing, as the amount of wine 
prescribed is generally small in proportion to the alkaline carbonates when 
prescribed with them, and especially as sherry wine is of variable acidity ; 
and, moreover, emetina is one of the alkaloids which does not well bear the 
long continued application of heat. Of course, we must faithfully follow our 
guide, the Pharmacopoeia, as it is dangerous to admit “the right of private 
judgment” in official pharmacy. Some critics have complained that the process 
of percolation is tedious and difficult. I have not found it so. We may, I 
think, rest assured that this change of process is an improvement, based as it 
is upon correct scientific knowledge and pharmaceutical experience. I have 
observed that this wine when first prepared does not possess the peculiar and 
•characteristic odour of that which is made in accordance with the old method 
by simple maceration, but it is curious that this odour does gradually develop 
in the wine prepared by the new mode, but not, I think, to the full extent we 
we have been accustomed to. 
For those who wish to gain more information upon ipecacuanha I will 
refer them to the admirable work of Bentley and Trimen on Medicinal Plants, 
Vol. II., page 145. 
Mr. B. F. Friswell, in a paper read before the Chemical Society, London, 
says that the results of his personal experience with toughened glass, during a 
period of eleven months, has caused him to regard that substance when formed 
into laboratory utensils as a conqplete failure. 
