828 
ON TINCTURE OF OPIUM. 
ON THE TINCTURE OF OPIUM. 
The Pharmaceutical Society of Antwerp has employed a com- 
mission composed of its members to determine the best men- 
struum for the preparation of tincture of opium. It has arrived 
at the following results : 
1. Good opium gives, when treated with water, less extract 
than bad or adulterated. 
2. By warm digestion, a stronger solution is obtained than by 
cold infusion, 
3. Alcohol must be preferred to wine in the preparation of 
tincture of opium. 
4. Narcotine, although alone insoluble in water, becomes par- 
tially extracted with the other ingredients of opium. When it 
is advisable to avoid the removal of narcotine, proceed as follows : 
Treat carefully prepared aqueous extract of opium with boiling 
alcohol ; this dissolves out the narcotine and morphine, from 
which solution, when cold, the narcotine separates. 
After the precipitation, whatever ingredients are necessary to 
form the tincture are to be added to the alcoholic solution. 
By this opportunity, the commission recommend another pro- 
cess by which morphine may be more readily separated from 
narcotine. One part of the opium is to be treated with four 
parts of alcohol. After the alcohol has been separated by filtra- 
tion, the residue is again to be macerated with three parts of 
alcohol. The resulting tinctures, after being mixed, are to be 
set aside for twenty-four hours to allow the narcotine to sepa- 
rate ; afterwards the morphine is to be precipitated with ammo- 
nia. To remove the last traces of morphine, the fluid from 
which the precipitated morphine has been filtered, is to be 
kept in a warm place for two days, a little water having been 
previously added, when a fresh quantity of morphine will fall 
down. By this method, one-twelfth of the weight of the opium 
employed, can be obtained as morphine. — Annals of Pharmacy 
and Chemistry and N. Y, Jour, Pharm. 
