FLUID  EXTRACT  OF  VALERIAN. 
379 
charcoal,  crystallizes  from  ether  in  granules,  and  having  the 
properties  mentioned  above.  The  results  of  the  analysis  of  this 
scammonolic  acid  and  its  baryta  salt,  are  the  same  as  Mayer's  for 
jalapinolic  acid,  for  which  he  proposed  the  formula  C32  H30  06, 
and  for  the  scammonolate  of  baryta,  BaO,  C32  H29  05.  Mayer 
found  in  his  jalapinolate  of  lead  29-95;  the  author,  in  his  scam- 
monolate of  lead,  30-80;  F.  Keller,  in  the  latter,  33-19  (average) 
per  ct.  of  lead. 
The  author  has  also  found  the  drastic  resin  obtained  from 
Convolvulus  Turpethum,  to  be  a  glucoside,  and  is  now  investiga- 
ting it. — Buchners  N.  Repertorium,  vii.  9-20.        J.  M.  M. 
FLUID  EXTRACT  OF  VALERIAN, 
By  Israel  J.  Grahame. 
The  preparation  of  Fluid  Extract  of  Valerian  has  been  so  fre- 
quently referred  to,  that  it  may  appear  almost  superfluous  to 
offer  anything  more  upon  the  subject ;  on  which  account  it  is 
with  considerable  reluctance  that  the  writer  attempts  to  bring 
into  notice  some  views  which  he  has  long  entertained,  respect- 
ing the  officinal  process  for  making  this  valuable  and  extensively 
used  remedy.  More  than  a  year  since  he  exhibited,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  College,  a  specimen  of  the  extract  prepared  without 
the  use  of  ether,  expressing  at  the  same  time,  his  belief,  that  it 
could  be  as  efficiently  made  without  its  use  as  with  it,  but  re- 
served for  future  consideration  a  decisive  conclusion  on  this 
point.  The  process  then  adopted  has  been  many  times  repeated 
with  what  success,  the  sequel  will  manifest. 
The  officinal  formula  directs  the  Valerian,  in  coarse  powder,  to 
be  first  treated  with  a  mixture  of  alcohol  and  ether,  and  the  solu- 
tion thus  obtained  evaporated  spontaneously  to  a  given  amount, 
which  is  then  to  be  mixed  with  a  percolate  obtained  in  the  mean 
time  by  treating  the  mass  with  diluted  alcohol.  In  the  evapora- 
tion of  the  first  percolate,  all  the  ether  and  apart  of  the  alcohol 
is  lost,  which  occasions  a  waste  of  material  as  well  as  considera- 
ble delay.  The  result  is  a  solution  of  all  that  is  soluble  in  the 
amount  of  alcohol  left  after  evaporation,  with  more  or  less  de- 
posit on  the  sides  and  bottom  of  the  dish  of  the  oleo-resinous 
22 
