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FLUID EXTRACT OF SENNA AND DANDELION. 
COMPOUND FLUID EXTRACT OF SENNA AND DANDELION. 
By Eugene Duput, Pharmaceutist, New York CitY. 
two pounds, 
one pound, 
quarter of a pound, 
twenty ounces, 
one ounce, 
half a drachm, 
two ounces, 
half a gallon. 
Senna (officinal,) 
Torrefied Dandelion Root, . 
Chamomile, .... 
Sugar, ..... 
Carbonate of Potash or Soda, 
Oil of Gaultheria, 
Alcohol, 
Water, 
Mix the dry plants, previously reduced to a coarse powder, 
with the water holding the alkaline carbonate in solution ; let 
the mixture stand twelve hours ; introduce it in a percolator, and 
gradually pour in water until a gallon of liquid shall have passed ; 
evaporate it to twenty ounces by means of a water bath, then add 
the sugar, filter, and make the addition of the alcoholic solution of 
gaultheria when cold. By following this process, I believe that a 
kind of saponification takes place, which allows of the more ready 
solution of the active principle of the senna in the aqueous vehicle, 
probably because chlorophylle being united to a dried essential 
oil, participating in the properties of resins, is rendered soluble, 
and the extractive portion being denuded of its resinoid covering, 
is more readily extracted by the percolating liquid. I make use 
of a percolator possessed of a convenient hydraulic power ; it 
has rendered readily, within thirty hours, a highly saturated 
liquid, containing in a gallon all the soluble principles of this 
extract. Ordinary percolators will answer also ; but the ingre- 
dients needing to be more loosely packed, do not yield so fully or 
so readily. The addition of torrefied dandelion root is intended 
to give to this fluid extract some greater value on account of its 
peculiar action on the hepatic system. I employ in preference 
the German chamomile (Camomilla vulgaris,) because of its 
pleasant aroma and its carminative properties, joined to a bit- 
ter principle, which seems to increase the purgative effect of the 
senna. 
This extract has become a favorite anti-bilious purgative with 
many of our practitioners, who, some of them at least, have used 
